Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: PROCRASTINATE (08/04/16)
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TITLE: Learning to Balance Life | Previous Challenge Entry
By Shirley Thomas
08/09/16 -
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Sometime in those hurried, frantic years I became a ‘list’ person. Everything went on a list, with top priority items always on the top. My greatest satisfaction came when I completed a ‘to do’ item and was able to mark it off my list. What a sense of accomplishment it was to review my list at the end of the day, and see all of my items marked finished. At a business management class I attended, the instructor’s rule was never handled a piece of paper or task but one time. You either trashed it, filed it, or processed it. That became my motto during those busy years.
During those years, no one could evenly remotely consider me a procrastinator. I always met my deadlines, expected everyone to meet theirs, and probably to be honest, was a little prideful in that area.
Currently, I am still involved in ministry, both locally and as a guest speaker at conferences, and I work part-time with my husband in our Real Estate business as a sales agent. I also aspire to be a published author, so I always seem to be working on an article, a book or story. Over the last decade of being semi-retired, I have sometimes found myself in the dreaded pool of procrastinators. It’s easier to say, “Oh, I can do that tomorrow.”
I seemed to have forgotten the words of wisdom I gave each of my children, and now give to my grandchildren, “Tomorrow never comes, it’s just an excuse to put something off that can be done today.”
Words of wisdom I lived by most of my life. Now, my ‘to do’ list seems to get longer and longer, instead of shorter, and I feel guilty most days because I haven’t spent enough time studying the Word of God or praying or writing. My house doesn’t stay as orderly now as it did with four children living at home. So I ask myself, “What am I doing?”
The answer: I’ve learned to relax, and live in the moment. As the famous quote goes, I’ve learned to stop and smell the roses. Raising a family, and working at a demanding job, didn’t give me time to even see the roses, much less smell them. It’s been a difficult lesson for me to learn and implement in my life, but it has been a necessary one. I don’t label myself an actual procrastinator; I believe my life is now less structured – I’m more flexible.
Now I am able to enjoy my family, both my adult children and their spouses, and my beloved grandchildren. My husband and I laugh more, talk more and live more. I enjoy spending time with my church family, and ministering in the market place called life. Those are things you can’t add to a ‘to do’ list; they are assignments from our heavenly Father. Now I don’t get frustrated if my day is interrupted by the Father’s ‘to do’ list.
I don’t advocate being a deliberate procrastinator, especially when it tends to disrupt other people’s lives and schedules, but I do believe a happy balance can be found in our lives. Jesus had a destiny to fulfill, yet He was flexible. We can see it all through the Gospels. He would be on a mission, and be interrupted by someone with a need, and He always responded. He lived His life by doing and saying only what the Father said. That’s my goal!
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