Ah, sweet slumber
I would consider myself a highly self-motivated individual. I usually don't have to be told to do anything; I find things which need doing and do them. I also have a hard time delegating tasks. I find myself looking over that person's shoulder, not quite approving, and then sneaking back to do it myself the way I think it should be done! I guess this would also label me a perfectionist.
My husband gingerly laid it down for me this weekend that he believes that I do TOO much. He finds it a rarity to see me actually sitting down and not working on some sort of task....unless I am sleeping at night (and even then, I am known to come up with elaborate plans or ideas within my dreams....crazy, I know).
I am a person who also needs 8 hours of sleep in order to feel my best the next morning, and throughout that subsequent day. Even 7-1/2 hours, a tiny sliver of sleep shaved off of that time, and I can feel the effects. Yet if I awaken after 6 or 7 hours of sleep and something that needs doing comes to mind, I am better off just getting up; there is no way my brainwaves can go back to sleeping patterns once a task has been written on my invisible planner of the mind.
Is this a curse? Or a blessing? Or just a quirk? I can't decide. I do not want to be called a lazy person at any time in my life. I admit that sometimes I work harder for the mere reason that I don't want that label on my head. Yet it is mainly an inner drive for accomplishment, for neat and clean surroundings, for a finished written product, or a fridge and cupboard stocked with time-consuming baked goods....that is what keeps me going.
What confuses me is that the Bible shows laziness in a very unfavorable light. It chastises lazy men and women for their unproductiveness, and it shows the task-oriented persons as the ones who retire rich and happy. Yet what about rest? Jesus Christ even rested Himself. Where is the delicate balance between the two? When is it okay to let go and let loose?
I am writing in circles simply because I have no idea HOW this dilemma could best be solved or explained. I stumbled across Proverbs 6 this morning in my quiet time (well, it was due to be read today; funny how what you read always pairs up with what your life is experiencing at that moment, isn't it?). "How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? 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." (Proverbs 6:9-11)
Maybe this verse is mainly referring to sleeping instead of going to an actual, physical job. I would not call what I do here at home as making much of a difference for us financially, although my husband would beg to differ. I just try to ensure that everything is orderly and homey when my husband, the one who works outside the home, enters the door each evening. Yet I feel as if this calling is for me, too, the calling not to be lazy or to fail to plan for our future.
Main point of this is that I just want to be a good steward of the time that God has given me each day. I don't want to squander time just as I don't want to squander money. I want to be a hard-working person who can always account for what was completed at each day's sunset. Yet I do not, with all my heart, want my son to grow up one day and say sadly, "Yeah, Mom never took much time out for me." God, please help me not to waste time, but help me, also, to put it into the right places. Help me not to neglect the most important things for the temporal.
My husband gingerly laid it down for me this weekend that he believes that I do TOO much. He finds it a rarity to see me actually sitting down and not working on some sort of task....unless I am sleeping at night (and even then, I am known to come up with elaborate plans or ideas within my dreams....crazy, I know).
I am a person who also needs 8 hours of sleep in order to feel my best the next morning, and throughout that subsequent day. Even 7-1/2 hours, a tiny sliver of sleep shaved off of that time, and I can feel the effects. Yet if I awaken after 6 or 7 hours of sleep and something that needs doing comes to mind, I am better off just getting up; there is no way my brainwaves can go back to sleeping patterns once a task has been written on my invisible planner of the mind.
Is this a curse? Or a blessing? Or just a quirk? I can't decide. I do not want to be called a lazy person at any time in my life. I admit that sometimes I work harder for the mere reason that I don't want that label on my head. Yet it is mainly an inner drive for accomplishment, for neat and clean surroundings, for a finished written product, or a fridge and cupboard stocked with time-consuming baked goods....that is what keeps me going.
What confuses me is that the Bible shows laziness in a very unfavorable light. It chastises lazy men and women for their unproductiveness, and it shows the task-oriented persons as the ones who retire rich and happy. Yet what about rest? Jesus Christ even rested Himself. Where is the delicate balance between the two? When is it okay to let go and let loose?
I am writing in circles simply because I have no idea HOW this dilemma could best be solved or explained. I stumbled across Proverbs 6 this morning in my quiet time (well, it was due to be read today; funny how what you read always pairs up with what your life is experiencing at that moment, isn't it?). "How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? 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." (Proverbs 6:9-11)
Maybe this verse is mainly referring to sleeping instead of going to an actual, physical job. I would not call what I do here at home as making much of a difference for us financially, although my husband would beg to differ. I just try to ensure that everything is orderly and homey when my husband, the one who works outside the home, enters the door each evening. Yet I feel as if this calling is for me, too, the calling not to be lazy or to fail to plan for our future.
Main point of this is that I just want to be a good steward of the time that God has given me each day. I don't want to squander time just as I don't want to squander money. I want to be a hard-working person who can always account for what was completed at each day's sunset. Yet I do not, with all my heart, want my son to grow up one day and say sadly, "Yeah, Mom never took much time out for me." God, please help me not to waste time, but help me, also, to put it into the right places. Help me not to neglect the most important things for the temporal.
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