This was the subject line in an email I received from a trusted faithful woman. It’s supposed to be motivational as she’s doing a series on moving from lazy to self-disciplined which is a good thing. In truth, her email was rather encouraging, and as well as honest.
But it was the subject line that got my attention and my point is that our worth isn’t measured by what we accomplish.
We live in such an achievement oriented society. It’s ridiculous.
Now granted, I have moments of selfishness and times when I want to do absolutely nothing. Sometimes I give in to the urge like yesterday when I watched several episodes of a show on Netflix without even knitting or mending or nursing while doing so. Sometimes I don’t.
But I don’t think that makes me lazy.
It’s frustrating because I look around this house and all the picking up that needs to be done, the vacuuming, the wiping, the corner scrubbing and flat surface dusting.
Here are some of things I did today:
Picked up and put away several things in my creativity studio
Made bread
Read aloud for a really long time with many many interruptions and
Kept my temper
Made Italian stew with fresh vegetables from my garden
Played a learning game with my girls
Made a couple of fabric covered magazine bins out of a diaper box
Cut up some tomatoes and put them in the freezer
Sharked the kitchen
Had a Jingle Bell Rock dance party with my boys
Roughhoused with my children
Organized a couple of cabinets
Did all the dishes
Now–the chiddlers are all in bed. I am done. Tired. Mentally worn out. Ready for some relaxing. But there is still a ton to be done. Everywhere I look there are things to put away at the bare minimum, not to mention the cinnamon in the bathroom sink or the shredded cheese on my kitchen floor.
If I don’t do it, am I lazy?
Thankfully, God loves me with an overwhelming love and doesn’t base that love on my achievements, paltry as they may be. If I can only truly grasp that concept, really ‘get it’ into the core of my spirit, it would be a lot easier to let go of what I haven’t gotten done.
(pictures in this post are purely gratuitous)
Nope, you are NOT lazy. At all! If only we could all grasp that concept…we would be so much better off!
Are you sure you weren't a fly on the wall at Heartstrings today?! Sounds an awful lot like the "balance" discussions we had! You are an amazing child of God- dirt and all!
I struggle with this all the time. I was diagnosed with ADD at the age of 30. Unfortunately with girls ADD comes across as laziness. As a mom and a wife this does not work well with how other moms/women judge each other. I get so discouraged with how much other women judge each other by how neat your house is or how many things you volunteer for. You are not lazy! Taking care of your family is the most important job in the world. I am so thankful that God loves us not matter what we "accomplish"!!! Thanks for a great post 🙂
Sigh…I know what you mean. It's SO HARD to be that mom that does it all, with a smile on her face. I struggle daily. My house now has the stomach flu…I want to sit with my 2-year-old and comfort him…but my house gets messier by the minute…guilt is stretched all over for me, but I just pray over and over to accept my messy house and move on…it won't last long.