Anti-Procrastination Update
This Anti-Procrastination challenge has ended up being a bigger challenge than I thought it would be! My original intent was just to be able to tackle things around the house that kept getting put off. But it has turned into so much more than that.
I've become trained to listen to myself (either audibly or mentally) saying phrases like, “Later”; “I can't because…”; “When ___ happens, I'll do ____.” When I hear those, I can now recognize that I am making an excuse to procrastinate about something. And you know what? I was doing it a lot more than I realized!
At first I was adding things to my list like crazy, but after a while I started tuning in to something a little deeper than just cleaning or organizing. This Anti-Procrastination challenge is turning from a challenge that's not so much about what I need to do, but about what I need to be.
My thinking is receiving an overhaul. The excuses that have been so subtly lurking in the background of my thoughts are coming more clearly to the forefront, and I'm recognizing things that have been holding me back from being who I ought to be. This is not a result of my own efforts in the challenge, but rather a result of being yielded to the Holy Spirit of God.
You see, whenever I hear those excuses whispering in my ear, trying to convince me to procrastinate yet again, I have a choice. I have a choice to either let the excuses win and allow what really amounts to laziness take over or to get up and get to work! Something that in my mind is simple – such as determining whether to wash the dishes before bed or waiting until morning because I'm too tired – becomes not a matter of household cleanliness, but a matter of a clean heart before God. Committing to a year of letting go of excuses has helped me see other things that I need to change…now.
I started exercising, and that was a huge step in the right direction. But there was (and is!) a whole lot more that God needed to get me to change. What about my mothering? I needed to stop saying, “I need to do better about teaching my children God's Word,” and just start doing it! What about my witnessing? I needed to stop telling myself “I need to do better about handing out tracts,” and just start doing it! Every day, as God shows me things in his Word, the result in my life ought not to be an attitude of mental assent, but an immediate doing! (James 1:22-25 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.)
I want to be transformed by the power of the living God! But that is only going to happen when the working of the Holy Spirit in my heart is met with a response of action rather than assent!
I am excited to continue my Anti-Procrastination Challenge not just throughout the rest of the year, but throughout the rest of my life. Don't get me wrong; we'll still be working on getting things done in the house, but I hope that like me, you're beginning to see how much work needs to be done in the heart!
What about you? Have you been making excuses without even realizing it? Have you been agreeing with what the Lord speaks to you about, but not actually putting it into action? Use the Anti-Procrastination challenge to help you change not just what you do, but who you are.