Today I woke up thinking about how my time was spent yesterday and assessing what actually got accomplished. My plan was to wrap up the three tax returns I was working on and spend the rest of the day doing what I call “power listing” inventory into our Ebay store and Poshmark Closets. When I went to bed Sunday night I had figured that it should only take me an hour or so to wrap up the tax returns. Yes, you guessed it! Due to unforseen issues to resolve, I submitted the last return around 5:15pm. Not exactly how I had planned the day. Jack and I have been working on our time management skills by recording how we spend each hour of our work day and comparing it to how much work gets accomplished. It is one of the things that I am trying to teach him right now, since multitasking is not one of his strengths. When you work for yourself from home it is so easy to allow distractions to get in the way of progress. He and I talk a lot about being honest with ourselves when our day and work is not going the way we planned. Did we really put the time and effort into our goal in order to make it happen? Sometimes we confuse “activity” with “work”. When you are self employed it is especially not the same! While this is difficult for Jack to grasp, it is also easy for me to forget this. The older I get and the less energy I have it is easy for me to let distractions get in the way.
All that being said, I was reminded how hard it is to wait. Currently, I am in the editing stage of my book being published. I was told it would be about 4-6 weeks before I would receive my first edit to approve. This waiting time is feeling like an eternity! I am so anxious for the book release that it really compounds what I am feeling about wanting to hear “Something” that indicates this is really going to come to fruition! Jack and I are working on several goals together and then we have our individual goals. He is working hard so that he can put his “shell of a house” back together and pay for it as he goes. Not an easy thing and a long process to boot! I can only imagine how hard the waiting is for him as well. As Christians, we hear a lot about God’s timing. Oh how hard that is! We try to wait and then we start getting ideas about how we can “help” God along. We tend to think, when things are not going the way we planned it or as fast as we hoped it would, that somehow God needs a little assistance. What we tend to forget and learn from our “impatient” lessons is that God’s timing is PERFECT! When we try to intervene instead of waiting on the Lord, we just make a mess of it all and then expect God to clean it all up. So my word of encouragement for you today is, whatever goals you are working on in your life, to pray and consult with God about what He would have you spend time doing today. Ask Him to show you the work that needs to be done for today in order to reach the goals and desires of your heart. Remember waiting isn’t for sissies! It takes a lot of strength and self control to wait upon the Lord!