Anti-Procrastination: The Simple Things
This Anti-Procrastination challenge has helped me identify so many of the excuses I make for not doing things. The excuses are many and varied, but are usually such things as “I don't have enough time”, “It's too hard”, or just plain old, “I don't feel like it.”
Today I identified yet another excuse, and I realized yet again that all my excuses are pretty lame. This time the excuse was that the thing I needed to do was too simple. Sure, I wasn't verbalizing it in those terms, but when it was all boiled down that's all it amounted to. Isn't that just stupid?!
What I (we as a family actually) have been neglecting for way too long is to pray for missionaries around the world. My husband and I both pray for missionaries in our private prayer times, and we as a family will pray for specific needs of missionaries when they are brought before us. But regular prayer for missionaries as a family has been…well…this sounds so harsh, but it's true…nonexistent.
The reason we kept neglecting it is that the process was just too simple. We've had a simple system in place for a very long time, but we have never once used it – just because it seemed too simple. We felt guilty because we should be praying together for more than just missionaries. We felt like we needed an elaborate system to make sure we were covering all of our prayer bases. Because we felt like we couldn't do it right, we weren't doing it at all.
A couple days ago I finally pulled out our simple system and just started using it completely impromptu with the kids at lunch. And while I do hope to eventually come up with something a little more elaborate, at least we're praying for missionaries together a whole lot more than we used to!
Here's the “system”, if you can even call it that!
It's a cheapo 4×6 photo album with missionary prayer cards inside. We pray for one missionary at each meal.
Sure, I'd like to keep the prayer cards perfectly updated. I'd like to have a way to list out specific prayer needs for each missionary family instead of relying on our memories. But for now, our missionary friends are being prayed for by a little family of five on a regular basis. The kids are so excited to see who the next missionary in the album will be. They keep very accurate records of whose turn it is to pray, and ask what exactly they should prayer for in regards to that particular missionary.
Okay, now, you know what I'm going to ask you. What have you been putting off because it's just too simple? What are you waiting to do until you come up with a more elaborate system? Just make do with things the way they are. You can always expand your system later. It's better for something to be done too simply than not at all!
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