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10 Minutes Peace
by Susan McGrath
At the point where things put off cannot conceivably be completed in a thorough and sane manner in the amount of time remaining, something I have dubbed "acrastivoidination" occurs.
In case you couldn't pronounce (don't ask me to do it) or even decipher that term, it's the collision of procrastination and avoidance. These two have been introduced and, in fact, are old friends in my house! Procrastination for me became a problem, if I remember correctly - and I don't always, when I had children. I was tired. They were needy. If I closed the bedroom door only my husband knew about the mountains of laundry. The problem comes when those mountains trigger an avalanche that somehow spreads throughout the house!
A quote on my daily calendar, one of those kind aimed at busy women which was bestowed on my by my mother, claims "I can't wait 'til I get caught up and have time to make a list of things I need to do!" Hands in the air for those who relate to that one.
Proverbs 24:27 says, "Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that, build your house." This wise saying admonishes us to prioritize our work and take care of the most urgent, important needs first. I guess by putting my babies first I was leaning toward that wisdom, but by not moving on down the list to the laundry I kind of toppled over into chaos.
Down in verse 20, Proverbs states, "I went past the field of a sluggard, past the vineyard of a man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I say: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man."
This is certainly not to say that we are being lazy (although I've certainly had my moments), but it warns of how quickly we can lose control of the "things" of which we are given charge. I think about how neglected my house is some weeks and wonder if my heart and soul have suffered the same fate.
It's so easy for me to avoid putting away that basket of laundry or mopping the bathroom floor - again. It's also easy to let my prayer time get shorter or my scripture reading be put off for the day. Both come with guilt. Both come with consequences. The wonderful part is that God is forgiving and will send me encouragement in some form when I start getting buried in the results of my acrastivoidination. Then I can knock that mountain down to a speed bump before the avalanche comes and delete "acrastivoidination" from my dictionary!
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a recovering journalist trying to encourage others and glorify God through writing;
living the small-town life with husband Tim and sons Lincoln, 12, and Sawyer, 6;
completing a few put-off writing projects while using chocolate for therapy.
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