Procrastination. (Photo credit: Tysh)
Procrastination is the thief of time so the saying goes. Don’t put off till tomorrow what can be done today is easy to say but not always possible to do I have often found. My intentions might be spot on and my ability enough for the task but my inclination may not be synchronised. Too often other things get in the way and all good intentions are left on the shelf and sometimes forgotten about. Time is the precious commodity common to all of us. What we do with our time is entirely our own responsibility, we can either make the most of it or waste it but we don’t get another shot at it, once gone that’s it!
The Bible tells us that there is a time for everything and everything has a time. In the Book of Ecclesiastes chapter 3 we see….
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and
a time for war and a time for peace.
There is time for getting things done too. A few years ago my life changed in a special way when I came to understand God and accept His offer of salvation through Jesus Christ. It took me 43 years or so to reach that conclusion and do something about it. We all like to think we know all the answers but none of us do. There was a time, a special time for me to turn around my life and follow Jesus. Other people have their own special times for things to happen in their lives too. The small things in life I believe have their time too. Take for instance my bedroom. Ten years ago, well almost ten years ago (Late November 2002) I returned home from Thailand after undergoing gender re-assignment surgery and when I did I moved into the bedroom in question. The bedroom was once shared with my spouse when we were married but for many years I hadn’t slept in there. Some movements within the family resulted in our eldest son using the room for a few years but whilst I was away the room had been decorated and he had switched to another room in the house. I took the room for my own use and personalised it. Although the room had been nicely decorated it still needed a new carpet and a new bed. At the time I had other considerations to think about and I left off doing anything about it for a couple of years. About three years ago I finally decided to buy a new carpet and have it fitted. I already had a couple of new beds together with a lot of other furniture stored in the house because I had planned to buy a place of my own when we sold the house but that never materialised and I have remained living here instead. One thing that used to annoy me was the curtain (drapes) rail which used a pulley system to open and close the curtains but it had been broken for some years and the curtains had to be moved separately. It wasn’t a problem but I promised myself that one day I would replace the rail. On Friday last week the curtains pulled free of the rail and were damaged slightly in the process. I slept on it and on Saturday morning decided to buy a new rail and fittings. I got up early so that I could use the treadmill and it was mid-morning before I drove to the store and return with the new rail. After lunch I carried out the repairs to the curtains. They needed some stitching and I had them done in no time. I removed the old rail and brackets but had to carry out some repairs to the woodwork before I could fit the new rail. It took me around two hours to complete the work and now finally my bedroom is completed. I could have done the job years ago and should have done so instead of putting it off. Things have a habit of coming back at you. Old sayings like a stitch in time saves nine show us that leaving things undone can be our own undoing. We can end up doing more than we would have done had we done it sooner. Our time is then wasted. We may lose many things in life but the most precious of commodities is the time given to us and none of us know how much time has been given to us. Procrastination will thieve us of that time if we let it.
Shirley Anne
Related articles
- There’s A Time For Everything: Ecclesiastes 3 (revivalandreformation.wordpress.com)
- Turn, Turn, Turn (brianndorris.wordpress.com)
- A Time For Everything (iamaubrey.wordpress.com)
