If there is one thing that parents of elementary school kids dislike, it is when a project is due.
Whether it is the science experiment project, the creative writing project, history project, or really any project that requires more than a week of good, hard work and a ton of glue to complete. It is not that we don’t like to see our children learning and completing really cool projects, it is just that making kids sit down, focus on schoolwork and putting forth the creative effort to get a good grade can be a big ole pain in the behind.
This is a good moment to say that I think all teachers deserve a raise!
I remember the first science fair project that I completed in the 5th grade. My dad helped me quite a bit. In the end, I had the coolest model of an atom.
However, I remember the struggle that we had with the written part of the project. It was not as interesting to me, so I procrastinated, daydreamed, played around, and genuinely refused to finish it in a timely manner.
As most kids do, I finished at the last minute and had my dad positively furious because I wasted so much time.
But that’s what we do when we really are not committed to doing something that we should be doing.
Scripture states that “Whoever keeps staring at the wind won’t sow; whoever daydreams won’t reap.” (Ecclesiastes 11:4) That sounds like the biblical version of what my parents used to tell me when I was “supposedly” doing my homework.
“You will never get done if you just sit there and stare at it!” Henry David Thoreau, the American poet and abolitionist once said, “You can’t kill time without injuring eternity.” Oh, how true that is!
We know and can see how a good use of time can benefit us. We can see the results of being focused and intentional about how we use our time.
The things that we do, and more importantly, do not do, have a lasting effect on our life, as well as others. Who knows whether the things we have neglected to do has impacted someone in a bad way or changed the course of how God’s will would be accomplished.
Has procrastination kept you from inviting someone to church to hear the gospel?
Have you been stalling instead of reaching out to someone that you know needs a friend in a time of need?
Have you been delaying a much-needed conversation with someone who needs to hear the word of God?
Are you “staring at the wind” but still expecting to see God move in your life?
Friend, as a believer, we are called to “redeem the time” (Ephesians 5:16) by making the most of every moment that we can considering eternity. That is why you should always “Commit your work to the Lord,…” (Proverbs 16:3).
For when we are consistently and faithfully working for the kingdom of God, He will bring His will to pass through us.
We must remember that we are called to “redeem the time” rather than to “kill time.”
Dawn Hayes is mother of 4, grandmother to 3 and she and her husband pastor at New Hope Assembly of God in Senatobia. She has been writing “Sips from the Well” since 2015.
