What Time Is Later?

by Beth Penny

“O kay, I’ll do it later.” Famous last words. Let’s face it: adulting is hard on so many levels. Chores pile up. Laundry, later. Dishes, later. Trim the bushes, later. Paperwork, later. The list goes on and on. We all face tasks that we just don’t like to do. So, faced with undesirable things that we need done, what do we do? Nothing. Put it off. Procrastinate. Whatever we don’t see as a must-do goes on the “later” list. Soon, so many things are on the “later” list that we 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 ugliest one first, don’t sit and look at them too long, and take action immediately.” Who knew? Frogs can be used to combat stress. Use those steps to tackle your procrastination snowball. Do the dreaded tasks first, begin to take care of them one at a time, and start NOW.

I don’t have to list the awful and horrible things that stress does to our bodies, minds, and souls. Stress can tear a strong, healthy person down. Simply managing the things that cause our distress can open new doors and bring about

the peace that God wants us to feel, the peace that can only come from God. When we have the procrastination snowball in front of us, we cannot put God first in our lives. That becomes a barrier to our relationship with God and puts a crack in our foundation.

In our daily lives, sometimes doing the things that God puts on our hearts to do becomes something for the “later” list. Here is the kicker. Don’t wait until later to do good or what God, as that still small voice, has told you to do.

Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Don’t let the stress of doing things later inhibit what you can accomplish today. Free yourself from the chains that come from the procrastination snowball, and you will immediately see the benefits that were always before you: the things that were blocked by the “later” list.

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