Tag: priorities

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motivation

Sit Still!

“I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man’s being unable to sit still in a room.”

Blaise Pascal

There is a time for everything. Unfortunately, we tend to not know when it is time to move and when we should sit still. We value action much more than contemplation, don’t we?

There is always a sales goal that we must meet. We have a production goal that has to be fulfilled. And who can forget that job that is very, smoking hot? And of course, there are plenty of distractions all around. How can our kids be so fidgety when we have work to do?

There are goals that need to be met. However, if there isn’t any time to sit still, we can lose focus on what is really important. It isn’t easy when we have so many demands.

brown tree with snow
Photo by Simon Berger on Pexels.com

Today, a winter storm is brewing where I live. Some of us will be forced to slow down and perhaps think for a while. It isn’t what any of us planned. But perhaps it is what we need to stop, sit still, and consider the bigger picture. May we all get a chance to stop and contemplate for a while. At the very least, it may be able to prevent us from some kind of human evil!

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motivation

How to Waste Time

How to waste time

Nobody needs a lesson on how to waste time, do they? Or do we think it’s so obvious we don’t realize there are subtle ways to ruin a day?

There are plenty of examples of time-sucking activities. However, what came to mind when you read the headline? Did any of these thoughts come to you about wasting time?

  • A slacker just sits in front of their TV each day
  • Someone at work doing anything but work
  • A social butterfly flitting between people, spreading gossip and idle chit chat to their surroundings

We look at disdain to people we consider lazy and unproductive. But what we don’t realize is how often we waste time being busy. It is possible to be incredibly busy but doing the wrong things.

  • We can stay up late, then wake up late in a manic push to get out the door
  • Some of us can be tempted to just answer email instead of consider long-term planning
  • An alert on our phone can distract us from an important task we are doing

We don’t have to be idle to waste time. Focusing all our energy on urgent matters that aren’t important can make us waste just as much time as someone who isn’t busy. In fact, we need downtime and breaks to keep us from burning out. Consider taking a break and do the following:

  • Write a list and consider what is really important for today
  • Turn off phone notifications when you need to focus
  • Spend some time considering what is important in the long-term as opposed to what seems urgent today that won’t matter tomorrow
  • Take a look at the toxic time triangle and consider if your life is out of balance

There are too many ways to waste time. Let’s consider how slowing down and taking a look at what’s important can keep us from wasting more of it.

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children's ministry cartoons School Cartoons teaching

Why who is in a classrooms matters

Featured image: Cartoon of a baby, two adults and a scarecrow

Cartoon of a baby, two adults and a scarecrow

Cartoon of two adults and baby with a scarecrow. A man says about the scarecrow, “He doesn’t interact with the kids much. But he’s always available and on time.”

I can usually tell when someone doesn’t feel comfortable in a classroom. They don’t look much different from the scarecrow in my cartoon. They’re stiff, standing tall among all the kids. They do dress better than a scarecrow, however. They also have a more worried look than the scarecrow in this picture.

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