Good Habit #1 – Just go do it!
Maybe you have already said something like this to one of your children this morning: “Just go do it!” Children — and their mamas — can be wonderful procrastinators. I know. I’ve done a lot of procrastinating myself.
Last Monday Ray and I joined our son at another conference. We enjoyed meeting and renewing acquaintances with many people who serve homeschooling families. The fifty attendees were from Canada, California, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Georgia, Arizona, and many places in between — between 20 and 25 states altogether. You would love to hear the hearts of folks who want to encourage and bless you and your family.
Conference fees included breakfast vouchers for a hotel breakfast. When we checked in, Ray asked for ours. The hotel clerk said we wouldn’t have any. After checking with someone else, she came back with the same information.
The staff was mistaken. The busy conference organizer had to stand in the lobby the next morning and hand out vouchers as attendees came in for breakfast.
I love light, so one of the first things I do in a hotel room is to turn on all the lights. The bulb in the lamp on the desk was barely a flicker, so Ray called the front desk to request a replacement.
Weeks, maybe months, before the conference began, the hotel knew we were coming. Somewhere, somehow, they had a major breakdown of communication. When Ray and I first arrived in the conference room to help set things up, the trash can was full, the chairs were askew, and the tablecloths on the tables were dirty. Those setting up informed the hotel staff and went out for supper.
When Ray and I returned to our room after supper, the lamp still didn’t work. Again we asked for help. Heading back to assist in the conference room, we found it in the same condition as when we left. No one came. Finally, at about 9:00 p.m., I went back to the desk to ask again for the room to be cleaned and arranged.
I waited while the desk clerk made two phone calls. I heard her tell one of her listeners that “he” was on break at the moment. When she hung up, she told me, “Give us 45 minutes.” Ten p.m. didn’t seem like an ideal time to have a conference room ready for a meeting that began at 8:30 a.m. the next day–or was that when they were going to start getting it ready?
Ray and I went back to our room about 9:45 p.m. At 10 p.m., a young man came with a replacement lamp — not a bulb, mind you–a lamp. Unplugging the lamp and replacing it was a bit of an acrobatic maneuver. “I’m glad I’m a little guy,” he commented.
I asked the young man if he was involved in setting up the conference room. He was. He assured us that the tablecloths would be out of the washer soon. Out of the washer? That poor man was wearing lots of hats that night: maintenance, set-up, and even laundry!
As he left the room, he opened up and complained to us a bit. He didn’t understand why the hotel wouldn’t take care of their lamp problem. He said that they have about 15 lamps that don’t work. When the front desk gets a call about a malfunctioning lamp, he has to find which hotel rooms are out of commission at the time so he can go there to swap out the lamps!
Now, that is what I call procrastination!
As homeschooling mamas, you have many opportunities to teach your children real life lessons that will help them in every situation for the rest of their lives.
As sad and as frustrating as it would be to live with the kind of sluggard Solomon describes in Proverbs 26, the descriptions paint a funny picture.
As the door turns on its hinges,
So does the sluggard on his bed.
The sluggard buries his hand in the dish;
He is weary of bringing it to his mouth again.
Proverbs 26:14-15
I don’t know about you, but I’m on the lookout for the “fifteen lamps” in my own life that I keep moving around instead of telling myself: “Just go do it!”
And while we are teaching our children and ourselves: “Just go do it,” we can also teach them why.
Whatever you do in word or deed,
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
Colossians 3:17