What (Should) Come First
Priorities.
It's so hard to get this right. No, it's not that hard for me to figure out what my priorities are. It's just hard for me to make sure my highest priorities come first. It's General Conference weekend again, one of my favorite times to take stock of my life and see how I'm doing with my priorities. And so far this weekend the result isn't what I'd like it to be.
Way too much of my days are getting squandered on things that are quite a bit down my list. It's not that I'm spending time on bad things so much as spending time on things that not only have no eternal importance but they swallow up my time in great gulps so I don't have much time for the regular daily stuff that needs to be done. Like trying to beat a level on Bubble Safari or reading the 1,100 comments on a political blog post. (Terence says that reading comments-- whether on blog posts, articles, or facebook-- is like my crack. It's terrible for me: it steals my time and usually drags my mood down into the dumps, but I can't seem to stop doing it.) I still keep up on the basics of running a household (by the skin of my teeth), but the weightier things like spending quality time with my kids, serving others, and making a deliberate effort to curb my weaknesses get lost in the shuffle of trying to keep up with housework, homework, and the rest of the daily grind.
I really want to change this. But do I want it enough? I know from my weight loss/exercise campaign that I have to want it enough for any sustained change to happen.
I don't know. I want to say yes. What kind of reasonable woman would say that she would rather fritter away her life with meaningless internet drivel? But if deep down I truly want to spend my prized hours of the day on the important things, why am I not doing it?
Aren't these five precious gifts worth more of my time than reading the opinions of complete strangers on Sarah Hoyt's blog?
Without a doubt. So why can't I readjust my use of time to reflect that?
Well, I'm human and fallible. Guess I'll just have to keep working at it. I did have a kind of success with this last night. I've been planning for ages to have another special mom/daughter talk with M where we covered some of the more complicated topics related to sex that should be coming across her radar screen soon (like birth control, abortion, homosexuality, pornography, etc). She's getting to the age where she needs to know about this stuff, and I wanted her to get accurate information from me first before she started getting confusing information from friends or the media. But though this was important to me, I kept letting little daily chores take precedence. Meanwhile, time was just flying by faster and faster. Last night, I decided to quit allowing other stuff to get in the way and make it happen. It went really well, I think. (M even had some questions, which I thought was a good sign. However, I completely bungled trying to explain sexual desire. She wanted to know exactly how she would know if she was feeling it. Umm, the best I could do was just say that she would know when she felt it. Anybody have a better way to explain? I try to be frank and straightforward with these topics, but sometimes my facility with words just fails.)
Anyway, it felt good to take some time just with M and talk. (Enjoying ice cream together was fantastic too!) She's growing up so fast. Pretty soon she'll be a full-blown teenager.
It's coming quickly. (Eeeek!!!) And I need to make the investment of time now so our relationship can survive it!
It's so hard to get this right. No, it's not that hard for me to figure out what my priorities are. It's just hard for me to make sure my highest priorities come first. It's General Conference weekend again, one of my favorite times to take stock of my life and see how I'm doing with my priorities. And so far this weekend the result isn't what I'd like it to be.
Way too much of my days are getting squandered on things that are quite a bit down my list. It's not that I'm spending time on bad things so much as spending time on things that not only have no eternal importance but they swallow up my time in great gulps so I don't have much time for the regular daily stuff that needs to be done. Like trying to beat a level on Bubble Safari or reading the 1,100 comments on a political blog post. (Terence says that reading comments-- whether on blog posts, articles, or facebook-- is like my crack. It's terrible for me: it steals my time and usually drags my mood down into the dumps, but I can't seem to stop doing it.) I still keep up on the basics of running a household (by the skin of my teeth), but the weightier things like spending quality time with my kids, serving others, and making a deliberate effort to curb my weaknesses get lost in the shuffle of trying to keep up with housework, homework, and the rest of the daily grind.
I really want to change this. But do I want it enough? I know from my weight loss/exercise campaign that I have to want it enough for any sustained change to happen.
I don't know. I want to say yes. What kind of reasonable woman would say that she would rather fritter away her life with meaningless internet drivel? But if deep down I truly want to spend my prized hours of the day on the important things, why am I not doing it?
Aren't these five precious gifts worth more of my time than reading the opinions of complete strangers on Sarah Hoyt's blog?
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Without a doubt. So why can't I readjust my use of time to reflect that?
Well, I'm human and fallible. Guess I'll just have to keep working at it. I did have a kind of success with this last night. I've been planning for ages to have another special mom/daughter talk with M where we covered some of the more complicated topics related to sex that should be coming across her radar screen soon (like birth control, abortion, homosexuality, pornography, etc). She's getting to the age where she needs to know about this stuff, and I wanted her to get accurate information from me first before she started getting confusing information from friends or the media. But though this was important to me, I kept letting little daily chores take precedence. Meanwhile, time was just flying by faster and faster. Last night, I decided to quit allowing other stuff to get in the way and make it happen. It went really well, I think. (M even had some questions, which I thought was a good sign. However, I completely bungled trying to explain sexual desire. She wanted to know exactly how she would know if she was feeling it. Umm, the best I could do was just say that she would know when she felt it. Anybody have a better way to explain? I try to be frank and straightforward with these topics, but sometimes my facility with words just fails.)
Anyway, it felt good to take some time just with M and talk. (Enjoying ice cream together was fantastic too!) She's growing up so fast. Pretty soon she'll be a full-blown teenager.
It's coming quickly. (Eeeek!!!) And I need to make the investment of time now so our relationship can survive it!
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