Help
With Your Rule
The Old "I Don't Have Time" Excuse :-)
" "I don't have time." Oh, how often I've heard this one. Listen folks, if you sleep eight hours a night, you have sixteen waking hours a day. Subtract eight hours for working and two for eating and hygiene and you still have six hours left. In those six hours, there is no way you can't find half an hour for exercise. For other things that are important to you, you simply find or make time, and this should be the same... "I'm too lazy." This is usually the real reason, and I can hardly criticize you with a straight face, since for much of my life, I've been guilty myself..."
Dr. Robert C. Atkins, MD in "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution", Avon Books, a division of Harper Collins Publishers, New York, 2002, p289
posted by Holly at 3:19 PM
3 Comments:
The old "I don't have time" excuse applies to so many things, doesn't it! It really is an excuse, and it pertains to exercise, and prayer, and spending time with our children or husband. A priest once told me that maturity is learning to 'call a spade a spade'. And I think that maturity beckons us to realize when we make excuses for neglecting our daily duties, to admit them, and to move on.
For acknowledging that we are making excuses is half the battle. Denial is a real issue for many of us.
So let's 'own up' and hate those things about ourselves which are worthy of our hate - our sloth, our laziness, our reluctance to do the good, our sinful neglect - and then, disgusted, we can call out to God to help us and begin to choose to do the good we know God is calling us to.
We can do it !! Woohoo ! All things are possible with the grace of Christ! :-)
Dear Holly,
I do agree with your comment, but I really need help with this... How do you keep on task and move on with your day and deal with babies and toddlers? I find I am on my way to get something done and someone got hurt, or they spilt yogurt, or need a diaper change, etc, and I have to deal with that. I have been in the past so very focused on getting things done, that I would react very badly to these little interruptions, which are just part of life with kids. I am working on accepting my little ones for what they are, and not getting upset when they throw off my schedule, but now I am the point where before I know it an hour has gone by and I have nothing to show for it. I console myself thinking of all the pleasant memories we are building (like singing little songs while changing a diaper, or just cuddling with a baby), but I'm still way behind with the housework, the school planning, etc.
Any words of wisdom on how to balance my day?
Thanks and God bless you for sharing your time with us!
Isabel
Of course, the 'interruptions of little ones' are not excuses in any way, are they? These little ones ARE the vocation, right along with God!! In fact, I like your attention to the children, and I think that scheduling in such as way as to leave room for the inevitable interruptions is necessary. I also think that your emphasis on person-orientation is very important over the task-orientation.
And yet work must be done.
So, something has to give.
I suggest then, that since there is only so much time in one's life, that a mother often has to 'give up' many outside interests in order to dedicate herself to her vocation. But she ought not to give up what is necessary - such as her prayer life or basic exercise, even if in the form of a walk.
After a reduction of too many extra activities, and a reduction of 'stuff' in one's house, then the enlisting of Daddy to watch the kids while Mummy gets off for 30 minutes for a prayer time is possible, or this can also be scheduled for the evenings when kids are in bed. Also the kids can be taken along on the daily walk, with baby in a stroller (even on the skating rink!), or all can dance in the living room! Where there is a will, there is a way.
The key is to start with the 5 Ps, ask yourself what God wants from you in each of these 5 relationship areas, schedule basic time slot (that tie into your kids natural sleep patterns) and begin on these.
It remains to be said: If we can watch t.v. for an hour or more a day,or can talk on the phone or sit at the computer for an hour or more, we can instead/likewise get our prayer time in, and our daily exercise and whatever other basic duties (including the duty to self-health) that need to be done. It is a matter of priorities.
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