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If there is one thing a mom needs to be, it’s a multi-tasker. Make that phone call while sweeping the floor. Fold laundry while listening to a child practice her reading. Go ahead and put together that grocery list while in the kitchen cooking lunch. Don’t waste a moment because somehow it all has to be done!
The ability to multi-task is a phenomenally important one, but mastery of this ability does not come without cost.
As we improve our multi-tasking skills, we can begin to feel as if we’re wasting our time if we are not multi-tasking. The problem comes when we feel like we have to multi-task in the middle of interacting.
It can be hard to just sit and visit with a friend without some type of busy work in our hands.
When our children just want to snuggle up with us on the couch, we feel as if we need to at least have a book to read, either to them or silently to ourselves.
We fidget during church or a meeting because all we’re doing is sitting there!
We try to think of things we can do with our spouses for date night. I mean, come on – just sit there and enjoy each other’s company? Don’t we have to have a plan and be doing something?
But, the worst of all comes when we sit down to spend time with our Lord and Savior. We have difficulty just sitting with Him in prayer without doing something to keep our hands busy in hopes that our minds will not wander.
It is possible that I am the only one who struggles with this issue, but I have my doubts. We as wives, moms, employees, students, homeschoolers, and so much more have this pressing need to get it all done. We can’t waste a moment! So, we max out our capabilities and our attention 100% of the time, just to fit it all in.
Sometimes, some things need to just be let go.
There is a time to make full use of our time, and there is a time to devote our full attention to one thing. This is more true with relationships than with any other aspect of our lives. In my own life, multi-tasking has become a habitual response in almost every situation. If I can’t multi-task in some activity, I feel as if I have to rush through the activity in order to get on to the next thing.
Multi-tasking should never be a habitual response. Instead, it should be a tool that we use with wisdom. It should be something we use with wisdom and discretion – and something we put aside with ease at the appropriate time. I must confess that this will be a hard habit for me to break in the coming weeks, especially since I simultaneously need to learn how utilize multi-tasking wisely throughout much of each day. But, I long to grow in knowledge and discernment regarding when to use it and when to set it aside. And I pray that as a result, my relationships will grow – with friends, with my children, with my beloved husband, and, most of all, with my precious Lord and Savior.
Not Quite Ordinary 