Sure, it's great to throw a load of towels on the couch and fold them while watching an episode of your favorite show. And you're considered talented if you can cook a three course meal, feed the baby and talk on the phone all at the same time. But, if you're like me, you'll start the three course meal, walk away to put the clothes in the dryer, get sidetracked by the toilet that needs to be cleaned, forget you have a pot on the stove and come around the corner just as the macaroni is boiling over the side of the pot! So you see? Multitasking is hazardous to your health!
Let's take the dreaded subject of texting while driving: this is one of the most prevalent hazards of this multitasking society so far! Seriously folks - people are dying every day because they can't put down their phone long enough to drive across town! Forget the lady who used to put on her make-up while driving to work! People these days are conducting business, making appointments, booking their vacation - right from their front seat and behind the steering wheel! It's ridiculous!
Let me just share what it's done for me. For starters, I can't sit down and just watch TV anymore; no, I've got to have something to do with my hands. I can't just stand at the stove and daydream anymore; no, I've got to find another job to keep me busy while the food cooks. I can't just read one book, start to finish anymore; no, I've got about 5 books going at the same time. I don't know why I do this. I guess I'm afraid I will miss something if I don't read the latest, greatest, book right NOW! The problem is, after a while they all start to confuse themselves in my mind and I start quoting the right quote but from the wrong book! And, I can't tell you the last time I started a project and actually finished it completely, before starting another one.
If you look around, there are others who are functioning just like me! (And I use the term "functioning" lightly). People are scatterbrained these days. I feel like we all think in short snippets, like we're on FaceBook or Twitter, and we can't think in terms of paragraphs anymore. It affects my writing (creatively) because I'm so used to writing short, little scenarios of my life, instead of taking my time and elaborating on the good things going on. But those venues are fast-paced and that's what people want these days.
It effects relationships. People are so busy running around, getting the absolute most they can squeeze out of each day, that no one has time to just visit anymore. Have you tried getting a few friends together, all on the same day, lately? Visiting used to be something that people looked forward to - it's where friends connected, prayed, and encouraged one another. Now we have to make appointments with our friends, just to have a cup of coffee. We have to make "play dates" for the kids because, their parents have signed them up for 5 different activities all in the same week. It's like we're on the fast track to who-knows-where, but we're afraid we'll miss out if we don't keep going!
All humor aside folks, this busyness is killing us.
I don't know about you, but I'm purposing to slow down a bit. I want to read a good book, start to finish, and let it linger a while before I start a new one. I want to have a simple calendar so that when a friend calls and needs to chat, I'm available, or when God sends a divine interruption into my day, I won't fall apart because it wasn't on the schedule. I want to do a good job on each task, not an "ok" job on 5 different things at the same time.
Just like we all command "quality" work when we hire someone to build something for us, we should be about doing quality work, as well. Whether serving at church, in the home, at work, or wherever God calls us; if we are doing all things only half way, then we are not about quality, we're about quantity.
So I challenge you to go a little slower this week. Pay attention to details; do a great job instead of a "fitting it all in" kind of job. Work everything and every task, as if "working for the Lord" (Colossians 3:23), not like you're running a race and you have to be in first place.
Take time to care about what you're doing and do it well.
"The plans of diligent lead to profit
as surely as haste leads to poverty."
Proverbs 21:5
Until next time,
Blessings:)
Oh so right!!! In the midst of my homeschooling days, I think I was much like that - we didn't have texting - Praise God. But if there is anything I would desire for my children is that they would see the value in doing a few things and doing it well! Now that I'm older (and hopefully more mature) I've sorted out the things that are most important to me (and God) and focus my time on that! Oh and to mull on a good book!!
ReplyDeleteBlessings
I absolutely loved this post. Good job Debbie!
ReplyDeleteGrt pst Debbie. u r so rite! hehe
ReplyDeleteSeriously, I've always believed that when I'm doing too many things at once--multi tasking--I don't do any of them well, as you stated. For instance, while waiting for the pizza to bake tonight I decided to run out with the food scraps and put them in the compost, which would've been well and good had I come right back in, but I decided the compost needed turning and before you know it I'm running back into the house to get the almost burned pizza out. Too close of a call, but I do it all the time. Good reminder to slow down.
I appreciated this post encouraging us to savor our days. I am on the other end of the spectrum and sometimes wonder if my life is too simple. We have zero organized outside-the-home activities for the kids and pretty much only go to town for necessary errands and fellowship. I have a cell phone only for emergencies, absolutely must-know-now calls, and for the kids to get a hold of me when I am out and they are home. We read, we play, we are together ... nearly all.the.time. But, there is a voice that tells me I ain't doing enough and that I should be out there (away from home) doing more.
ReplyDeleteYou said, "It's like we're on the fast track to who-knows-where, but we're afraid we'll miss out if we don't keep going!"
Thank you for helping me to see that living simply for and with my family is a very good way. Down the road as we look back on these years, we'll have less regrets if our lives today are spent really investing in our children by teaching them life skills such as enjoying books, playing well together, cooking, gardening, sewing, etc. It is the devil that keeps us busy, because when we're busy, we have little, if any, time to think about where we're really headed and to ponder if this or that activity is really something our kids' souls need in the long-run.
The memories from my childhood that I tell over and over to my kids are not of the sports I played, not even of my school friends, but they are of people along the way - relatives and friends - whose lives revolved around the home and family and fellowship and who showed their love by talking, cooking, gardening, playing games; all of these things done in the context of living for others as Jesus did. This kind of people are becoming very rare, and I'd like to be more like them.
Mrs. Hearts