Happy New Year!

August, a bittersweet time of year-- so sweet because, as an educator, it's the beginning of a brand new start-- new pencils, new gradebook, new shoes, and most importantly a new set of  students to love.
However, to taste the sweet, you have to face the bitter end of summer and all its time at home with family, all its freedoms, like morning runs and midday trips to town to shop at local storefronts.
Today is my first teacher day back.  I haven't touched my classroom since I painted it in June.  I am having trouble getting it through my head that the schoolyear is already starting again.  My things-to-do list is growing rapidly, but as always, I will get it done.  And this year, I will keep the procrastination to a minimum.
The good news is that right now, I have a fresh start, and I am believing this is going to be an amazing year.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: The old has gone, the new has come."
 2 Corinthians 5:17
So to all of you out there headed to school or sending your precious, God-given treasures off to expand their knowledge, Happy School Year!
I pray God gives you joy in abundance and GRACE to get through the tough days.

The Queen of Procrastination

All hail the Queen!

Don’t worry.  I have not become suddenly full of myself.  I am not so proud of this kingdom.  In fact, this kingdom needs to be conquered.

I am talking about this Kingdom of Procrastination that I have built.  Let’s take a tour. 

If you were to study the history of my kingdom, you’d find that it’s not a free nation.  It’s a place governed by fear and unrest, where the queen (me) allows herself to be manipulated by lies, what-ifs, and other distractions.  This is not a healthy state for a kingdom.

In the northern section of the kingdom, you find the Stress District, where no one is on time and Last Minute is the Sheriff.  He’s always tyrannically yelling things like, “We don’t have time!” and “Hurry!”  The Queen resents him.

In the center of this kingdom is The Forrest of Clutter, a wild and frightening forest that is overgrown with unattended paperwork and abandoned items of every sort.  Everyone in the kingdom is disgusted by this place that threatens the entire land.   It needs to be cleared.

Through this forest flows a river of wasted time and money which pools into the southernmost part of the kingdom, the Enchanted Paradise of Dreams.  The Queen knows this a wonderful place.  She loves planning trips there and occasionally getting to visit, but she is often so exhausted from traveling through the other lands that she can’t enjoy her time there.

What will the Queen do?  She MUST do something.

Do you live in a similar kingdom?  If you do, you know how suffocating it can be.  But it doesn’t have to be this way.  Little by little, I know I can make the changes I need to clean up this kingdom, to expand the Enchanted Paradise and to at least help the Sheriff become less abrasive.

This is daily battle.  I can do this! I am not really a queen, but a Princess, a daughter of The King of Kings.  I am more than a conqueror and I will conquer this kingdom with the help of my KING and His instruction book. 

Proverbs 31:27 “She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.”