Procrastination Station
Living on an Army post, there are a few perks. One being, that you are within walking distance of quite a few choice locations. When I am feeling naively optimistic, I pretend I'm a sherpa and load up two kids in my double jogger and one on my back, and we head to the Burger King for ice-cream cones for a mere 50 cents per cone. Sounds ridiculous, you say. Well, I am just that motivated to save that extra 50 cents per cone. Darn it. Ok, most of the time we just drive, but it paints a much better word picture. ;)
Another place where I can practice the gift of being bipedal is the commissary. For those civilians that are not sure what a commissary is, I will inform you. It is a military grocery store where you don't have to pay a sales tax and you can get some pretty sweet deals. However you do have to avoid pay day like the plague, and have cash on hand to give the bagger a tip, because you are informed on a very intimidating sign that, "Baggers work for tips." And you don't mess around with the baggers. They will remember you and hunt you down. Just kidding, but I always feel like a terrible person unless I have some cash on hand. The sequestration may take our Tuesday commissary hours, but they will not take our freedom!!! (I picture myself with Braveheart paint, leading us into battle.)
Who has two thumbs and can walk to the library? This girl. Who has two thumbs and waited until the summer had totally passed to perform the aforementioned task? Again- this girl. All summer I thought, "Self, it would be a good idea for you to investigate, explore, and discover the library on post. For it shall be a treasure trove of books, with the potential to travel the world. In your mind." Well, I wish I would have been telling myself that, because maybe I would have actually carpe diem-ed my way over there. Instead, while the bright and disciplined children were getting their read on, my wild men were smashing water balloons over their heads, and making their water balloons pee, as the kids on the street like to say. These are equally important skills, are they not? This is not an exaggeration, for you will see the evidence of a summer of water balloons in our front porch mulch, despite my constant instructions for all the cul de sac kids to pick them up after they pop them. Or make them pee. But alas, we finally made our way to the library, this past Friday. Jack has a reading check off list, and I thought we should get ahead of the curve. As soon as I walked in and saw the majestic children's reading area, I was kicking myself. How could I have waited nearly four months to enlighten my children into the world of reading? (Don't judge, we read Good Night Moon, and The Jesus Story Book Bible on a nightly basis.)
As I may have mentioned in an earlier post, I am quite the procrastinator. To be fair, I either do something immediately, or I wait. A very, very long time. Maybe I feel like I have lost my momentum to do whatever task that I need to complete, and then I dread getting the ball rolling again. Whenever I do this, I always create this huge, impossible hill that I have to climb. Figuratively, of course. It looks quite daunting and scary. Walking to the library, scary? You do have to cross the road, and that happens to be a childhood fear of mine that I have since gotten over. Without therapy, mind you. Look both ways before crossing the street. I had to say it... As soon as I do whatever thing it is, I usually find that it was way easier than I thought it would be. Then I ALWAYS think, "Why in the world did I wait so long to do that?"
Here's another example in my procrastination station. Not sure what that means, but I like it. About two years ago, I started a wreath, gluing some felt flowers all around it. I didn't love my color choices, and so I just let it go for a while. I finally decided to give it a face lift for Independence Day that was coming up in a few months. As you can guess,I waited til the day AFTER the fourth of July to complete my totally awesome red, white and blue, with fancy gold buttons wreath for our front door. Again, we live on base. Score: I'm now patriotic 365 days a year.
A very wise man once said, "No matter what you are doing, you are procrastinating something else." I happened to be married to that scholar who created that principle. Something struck a chord with me when thinking about his out of the box theory. There are two types of procrastinators. There is the "good kind," and the "bad kind." If you have boys, you know that there are good guys and bad guys. Very similar. We all know what bad procrastinators looks like. There of those of us who wait to make a dentist appointment until 15 months since our last visit. At least I flossed, does that count? Then we often don't change the oil until we are 1000 miles overdue, or we even realize that we haven't sent our best friend a birthday card, and it was her birthday. Yesterday. Ugh.
So, what in the world does a good procrastinator look like? You have most likely heard the story about the professor and the jar of rocks. In short, he fills a jar with fairly large rocks, and asks if the jar is full. The students say, "Yes." He then fills the same "full" jar with pebbles, then sand, then water, asking each time if the jar is full. It is finally "full" when all of the empty space is gone. The moral of the story, is that you have to put the "big rocks" in first in order to get them in at all. The big rocks represent what you value, like God, your spouse, your children, your family and close friends. Then come the pebbles that matter to you, but not as much, such as your job, your house, your possessions. Then the sand, and the water, each with diminishing value. That's a fairly common concept, but I believe the analogy of the rocks can apply to procrastination as well. We often procrastinate putting in the big rocks, while often frantically putting in the pebbles. And we often don't recognize it is even happening. The pebbles are important, such as maintaining household duties, rushing kids around to practices, or doing an extra hour on the elliptical. But when we do these things time and time again, we often fill up the jar, without first putting in the big rocks.
When's the last time you had a date night? Trusting a babysitter with your precious children is huge, but I'm sure there is a trustworthy someone in your inner circle that is willing to watch them, even for a few hours, so you can reconnect with your spouse. Can't afford to pay someone? Maybe you can create a babysitting co-op. You may have to gird up your loins once a month with some crazy kiddos, but then you have three date nights in a month. Bam.
Have you made time to fellowship with other believers? I know I am guilty of this, where I thought it was just too much work to get plugged into a small group at our church. I paid for this dearly, as my very small circle of friends who were graciously there in my time of greatest need, became tapped out while trying to help me, even if they would never, ever admit it. Sometimes you just need a deeper bench in the hardest of times. This is not only for yourself, but it is for you to be a blessing to others! I can still name the people who made meals for our family, with my three babies. I bet you can too. Such a simple thing, but such an enormous blessing.
Have you listened to God's calling for your life lately? He may be speaking to you in a still small voice, but are you too distracted to hear it? I know I am often on Facebook and I don't realize how the time has just been sucked away. Never to return again. I know, this is like the TV commercials for kids where they say, "Get outside and play! Stop watching this stinky ol' TV and get some fresh air." It's true: electronic media can be a source of good, or evil. We just have to be careful how we spend our time, and how it is affecting our family. I know that my kids will often request for me to play with them, or read them a story (see?! ;)) and I get so distracted with my phone, that I don't even hear their plea until the third time. Yikes.
My point isn't to guilt trip you about how you or I spend our time, but to motivate us to remember the big rocks first, and procrastinate on the small ones. Enriching the most important relationships in your life, whether that is God, your spouse, or your children, is definitely a good thing. Or a new thing.
18 Isaiah 43: 18-19 says,
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
My prayer is that we would put all fears aside, to do that new thing. We have procrastinated long enough, and we will realize that once we finally do what we have been called to do, it wasn't so bad after all.
I know because you are reading this! :)
Another place where I can practice the gift of being bipedal is the commissary. For those civilians that are not sure what a commissary is, I will inform you. It is a military grocery store where you don't have to pay a sales tax and you can get some pretty sweet deals. However you do have to avoid pay day like the plague, and have cash on hand to give the bagger a tip, because you are informed on a very intimidating sign that, "Baggers work for tips." And you don't mess around with the baggers. They will remember you and hunt you down. Just kidding, but I always feel like a terrible person unless I have some cash on hand. The sequestration may take our Tuesday commissary hours, but they will not take our freedom!!! (I picture myself with Braveheart paint, leading us into battle.)
Who has two thumbs and can walk to the library? This girl. Who has two thumbs and waited until the summer had totally passed to perform the aforementioned task? Again- this girl. All summer I thought, "Self, it would be a good idea for you to investigate, explore, and discover the library on post. For it shall be a treasure trove of books, with the potential to travel the world. In your mind." Well, I wish I would have been telling myself that, because maybe I would have actually carpe diem-ed my way over there. Instead, while the bright and disciplined children were getting their read on, my wild men were smashing water balloons over their heads, and making their water balloons pee, as the kids on the street like to say. These are equally important skills, are they not? This is not an exaggeration, for you will see the evidence of a summer of water balloons in our front porch mulch, despite my constant instructions for all the cul de sac kids to pick them up after they pop them. Or make them pee. But alas, we finally made our way to the library, this past Friday. Jack has a reading check off list, and I thought we should get ahead of the curve. As soon as I walked in and saw the majestic children's reading area, I was kicking myself. How could I have waited nearly four months to enlighten my children into the world of reading? (Don't judge, we read Good Night Moon, and The Jesus Story Book Bible on a nightly basis.)
As I may have mentioned in an earlier post, I am quite the procrastinator. To be fair, I either do something immediately, or I wait. A very, very long time. Maybe I feel like I have lost my momentum to do whatever task that I need to complete, and then I dread getting the ball rolling again. Whenever I do this, I always create this huge, impossible hill that I have to climb. Figuratively, of course. It looks quite daunting and scary. Walking to the library, scary? You do have to cross the road, and that happens to be a childhood fear of mine that I have since gotten over. Without therapy, mind you. Look both ways before crossing the street. I had to say it... As soon as I do whatever thing it is, I usually find that it was way easier than I thought it would be. Then I ALWAYS think, "Why in the world did I wait so long to do that?"
Here's another example in my procrastination station. Not sure what that means, but I like it. About two years ago, I started a wreath, gluing some felt flowers all around it. I didn't love my color choices, and so I just let it go for a while. I finally decided to give it a face lift for Independence Day that was coming up in a few months. As you can guess,I waited til the day AFTER the fourth of July to complete my totally awesome red, white and blue, with fancy gold buttons wreath for our front door. Again, we live on base. Score: I'm now patriotic 365 days a year.
A very wise man once said, "No matter what you are doing, you are procrastinating something else." I happened to be married to that scholar who created that principle. Something struck a chord with me when thinking about his out of the box theory. There are two types of procrastinators. There is the "good kind," and the "bad kind." If you have boys, you know that there are good guys and bad guys. Very similar. We all know what bad procrastinators looks like. There of those of us who wait to make a dentist appointment until 15 months since our last visit. At least I flossed, does that count? Then we often don't change the oil until we are 1000 miles overdue, or we even realize that we haven't sent our best friend a birthday card, and it was her birthday. Yesterday. Ugh.
So, what in the world does a good procrastinator look like? You have most likely heard the story about the professor and the jar of rocks. In short, he fills a jar with fairly large rocks, and asks if the jar is full. The students say, "Yes." He then fills the same "full" jar with pebbles, then sand, then water, asking each time if the jar is full. It is finally "full" when all of the empty space is gone. The moral of the story, is that you have to put the "big rocks" in first in order to get them in at all. The big rocks represent what you value, like God, your spouse, your children, your family and close friends. Then come the pebbles that matter to you, but not as much, such as your job, your house, your possessions. Then the sand, and the water, each with diminishing value. That's a fairly common concept, but I believe the analogy of the rocks can apply to procrastination as well. We often procrastinate putting in the big rocks, while often frantically putting in the pebbles. And we often don't recognize it is even happening. The pebbles are important, such as maintaining household duties, rushing kids around to practices, or doing an extra hour on the elliptical. But when we do these things time and time again, we often fill up the jar, without first putting in the big rocks.
When's the last time you had a date night? Trusting a babysitter with your precious children is huge, but I'm sure there is a trustworthy someone in your inner circle that is willing to watch them, even for a few hours, so you can reconnect with your spouse. Can't afford to pay someone? Maybe you can create a babysitting co-op. You may have to gird up your loins once a month with some crazy kiddos, but then you have three date nights in a month. Bam.
Have you made time to fellowship with other believers? I know I am guilty of this, where I thought it was just too much work to get plugged into a small group at our church. I paid for this dearly, as my very small circle of friends who were graciously there in my time of greatest need, became tapped out while trying to help me, even if they would never, ever admit it. Sometimes you just need a deeper bench in the hardest of times. This is not only for yourself, but it is for you to be a blessing to others! I can still name the people who made meals for our family, with my three babies. I bet you can too. Such a simple thing, but such an enormous blessing.
Have you listened to God's calling for your life lately? He may be speaking to you in a still small voice, but are you too distracted to hear it? I know I am often on Facebook and I don't realize how the time has just been sucked away. Never to return again. I know, this is like the TV commercials for kids where they say, "Get outside and play! Stop watching this stinky ol' TV and get some fresh air." It's true: electronic media can be a source of good, or evil. We just have to be careful how we spend our time, and how it is affecting our family. I know that my kids will often request for me to play with them, or read them a story (see?! ;)) and I get so distracted with my phone, that I don't even hear their plea until the third time. Yikes.
My point isn't to guilt trip you about how you or I spend our time, but to motivate us to remember the big rocks first, and procrastinate on the small ones. Enriching the most important relationships in your life, whether that is God, your spouse, or your children, is definitely a good thing. Or a new thing.
18 Isaiah 43: 18-19 says,
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
My prayer is that we would put all fears aside, to do that new thing. We have procrastinated long enough, and we will realize that once we finally do what we have been called to do, it wasn't so bad after all.
I know because you are reading this! :)
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