Gò0dNews for Everyone
What Time Is Later?
“O
by Beth Penny
kay, I’ll do it later.” Famous last words.
the peace that God wants us to feel, the peace that can
Let’s face it: adulting is hard on so many
only come from God. When we have the procrastination
levels. Chores pile up. Laundry, later.
snowball in front of us, we cannot put God first in our lives.
Dishes, later. Trim the bushes, later. Paperwork, later. The
That becomes a barrier to our relationship with God and
list goes on and on. We all face tasks that we just don’t
puts a crack in our foundation.
like to do. So, faced with undesirable things that we need
In our daily lives, sometimes doing the things that God
done, what do we do? Nothing. Put it off. Procrastinate.
puts on our hearts to do becomes something for the “later”
Whatever we don’t see as a must-do goes on the “later”
list. Here is the kicker. Don’t wait until later to do good
list. Soon, so many things are on the “later” list that we
or what God, as that still small voice, has told you to do.
cannot see over or around it. This is what I call the procrastination snowball. The result? STRESS. Some things in our lives that cause stress are out of our control. But, if we can lower stress levels by taking charge of the things that we can change, then why not? The procrastination snowball we can control. Samuel Clemens—you know him as Mark Twain—famously said, “Eat one live frog first thing every morning, and you have the satisfaction of knowing that’s probably the worst thing that will happen to you that day.” Motivational speaker Brian Tracy took that one step further and gave this advice: “If you have two frogs to eat, eat the
Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not become weary in doing good,
ugliest one first, don’t sit and look at them too long, and
for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not
take action immediately.” Who knew? Frogs can be used to
give up.” Don’t let the stress of doing things later inhibit
combat stress. Use those steps to tackle your procrastination
what you can accomplish today. Free yourself from the
snowball. Do the dreaded tasks first, begin to take care of
chains that come from the procrastination snowball, and you
them one at a time, and start NOW.
will immediately see the benefits that were always before
I don’t have to list the awful and horrible things that
you: the things that were blocked by the “later” list.
stress does to our bodies, minds, and souls. Stress can tear a that cause our distress can open new doors and bring about
36 // April 2020
About The Author
strong, healthy person down. Simply managing the things Beth Penny has taught English at Model High School since 1997. There she is also the Yearbook adviser and the Special Education Department Chair. She and her husband, Chad, have four children.
