I have so much to do this Saturday morning, afternoon…day.  It’s time to play catch up.  The laundry is almost finished.  Okay, there’s a pile on the couch, but hey, they’re clean, they don’t count.  I’m close.

It’s the pile of bills on the kitchen table that’s the mountain I need to conquer.  It is calling me.  I do feel a sort of victory that I have placed them so centrally.  I cannot ignore them.  There they are, challenging me.  Soon, yes, really soon, I am going heed their insistent and vital call.  Electricity is, after all, a nice thing to keep going.

So of course, I’m making a collage.  It makes perfect sense.

I’m flipping through magazines and the multitude of catalogs, searching for perfect motivational, truth-telling quotes and words for myself, because I think that is what I need.  Heat?  Come on.  I need Mod Podge, scissors, and a thick piece of paper.

And eureka!   I’ve just learned how cool it looks to carefully tear around the words rather than simply cut them in a straight line!   An artistic discovery has been made.  Valiantly I press on.

I am choosing to play rather than work.  Inside.  Where it’s warm.  Because of the heat.

Oh, how easily I get distracted.  I do know what’s important.  I know what my priorities ought to be.

That’s why I’m writing this little blog instead of first praying the Daily Prayer.

(Cue chagrined emoticon.)  Practice what you preach, sister.  (Hey, maybe there’s a way to put that on my collage!  Whoops, I digress. )  I’m going to pause.  I need Jesus more than I need self-expression and certainly more than I need the vast array of alternatives parading through my mind.

I’ll be back later.  I need to center my heart in the Truth.

- - -

I’m back.

I’ve paid the bills.  Now that I’ve discovered online banking, it didn’t even take that long.  It’s the literal use of a knife to slit the top, pull them out, discover what they say, make the various piles, and figure out which ones need attention now and which ones can wait that threatens to overwhelm me.

Thank you notes can do me in, too.  Responding to emails.  Exercising.  Taking the dogs for their needed walk.  Making the bed.  Dusting.  Vacuuming.  Attending to the piles that spring up everywhere.  Brushing my teeth.  Oy.

Collage time.

What is it with me?  Meyers Briggs helps to explain my bent, but my personality is not my destiny.  I have the mind of Christ and so do you.  I have the Holy Spirit as my Guide and my Strength and my Intimate Friend.

It’s simply the choice to attend to what really matters that I so often find difficult.

The choice to be responsible.  The choice to care for my soul.  The choice to press into Jesus.  The choice to stop what I’m doing and simply BE with Jesus in quiet, in prayer, in worship.  To walk with Him through the requirements of life—the bill paying and cleaning up and tending to the gift of this life that He has given me. To choose to be thankful that I can pay the bills and have heat and when it’s appropriate, take the time to be creative!

Oh, Father, come and guide me this day into all the good gifts that you have for me (which include the satisfied feeling of ruling my God given domain).

Rein in my wandering soul.  Rein me in, oh, faithful God.

Rein me in to the here-and-now and in the practical expressions of living a life of faith, hope, and love.  Grow me up to choose to mature in You and not give way to distractions that keep me from pressing into Your vast, good heart.  Reign in me.

Oh, I just received a text.  Better look!  NO!  I’ll wait.  I need more of Jesus.  In order to live and love and be the woman I need to be this day, I need extended time with my God.  He’s my life and I need to catch up with Him.