CAN I DO EVERYTHING WITHOUT FRETTING? AND EVEN FIND JOY?

Can I do everything without fretting? And even find joy?

Can we find joy in the hustle and bustle of every day life?

I think we can.

When I get overwhelmed with the number of “things on my list”, I have a choice – I can fret, rant and rave at the fact that I have too much going on or I can find joy in the presence of all that is going on.

For instance, let’s say I have three blogs to write, dinner to make, vacation Bible school to plan, Mother who is not well and lives a couple of hours away, and a phone conference for a mission trip where I am supposed to have listened to hours of DVDs. On top of that I have a husband who requires my time and attention and a little dog who likes some of that attention too.

Before, I would throw up my arms and say, “I can’t do all this. There is not enough time.” And then nothing would get done.

Now I say – stop – take a short break, pray for wisdom and guidance and pick one of the above things to do.

Another problem that I have is not being able to focus on the task at hand.

My daughter watched me one day, as I took a load of dirty clothes to the laundry, but before I started the laundry I came back to pick something up from the counter that I had forgotten, then I went back and started the laundry, then back to do something else but on the way I did three other things. You see where I am going – I never sat and finished one job before taking on the other one.

Now I am trying not to multi-task everything in my life. Yes, sometimes I have to do other things while the clothes are in the washer; and sometimes while dinner is cooking I can do another task.

What I am saying is that I try to stick to the one job – reading, writing, planning, painting – whatever – and finish that job before I tackle a new one.

And the other thing I have learned is from Ann Voskamp, author of One Thousand Gifts – to be grateful throughout the “doing”; remember Him in all of life – little things and big things.

My days are smoother from not fretting about what has to be done – I JUST do it and give thanks that I can do it.

And I remember Ann’s words – “Life is Not an Emergency”. (from One Thousand Gifts, page 74)

Am I the only one who has this problem? Or are you sometimes stopped from doing by the amount of tasks on your plate? What helps you?

Another post you might enjoy is from Living the Balanced Life called Is Multitasking the Key to Productivity?