I have a pretty active mind. No matter what I’m doing, something else is frequently running through my brain. It’s a well-cultivated habit, actually. I mean, what could be better than letting my mind mull over a blog post while washing dishes? Is it not helpful to think about menu ideas while I fold clothes?
The problem is that I have so successfully trained my mind to run constantly that it’s hard to shut it down, which can make it very hard to focus on what’s right in front of me. That blog post that looked so perfect in my head as I washed dishes? I have no idea what the brilliant introductory statement was, and now I can’t seem to get that awesome idea to flow through my fingers. That menu plan I created while folding clothes? For some reason I can’t recall a single meal now that I’m ready to write it down. Oh, but that’s an awesome word for Words With Friends, and that might be the perfect solution for mending Olivia’s dress.
Yep, you guessed it. By the time I sit down with my Fire to play the word, I’ve forgotten it. And, somehow the mending solution doesn’t seem to work so well now that I have the dress in hand. But several other brilliant ideas are already forming in my ever-moving mind. Meanwhile, so many things in my life end up remaining undone because I focus more attention on planning them in my head than on handling the tasks right in front of me.
There is something that my mind should always be doing right now, but mulling over what is to come is not that something. Prayer, however, is. And, I’m not talking about running through a mental prayer list, although that doesn’t hurt. But, the prayer that I really need to train my mind to habitually fall into is that of continually committing every thought and action to my Lord and Savior.
When I’m washing dishes and the blog post ideas begin racing through my head, I can instead commit those thoughts to Him and ask Him to bring them to my remembrance at the appropriate time. Then I can let that commitment be a launching point for just carrying on a conversation with Him.
When I’m folding clothes and the menu plan starts rolling through my mind, I can ask Him to open up an opportunity later in the day to sit down and work it all out. And I can meanwhile chat with Him about the best ways to balance keeping our family healthy and our grocery budget under control.
Then when it really is time to sit down to write or menu plan, I can lift up a quick prayer to Him, asking Him to either bring to remembrance those ideas that were stirred up earlier or guide me to another effective use of my time.
It comes down to entrusting each moment to Him. Entrusting the now to Him, that He may work through me in the task right in front of me. Entrusting the then to Him, believing that He will guide and use me as faithfully then as He could were I to go over and over and over in my head exactly what I need to say or do.
It’s going to take some effort, but I hunger to retrain my mind. May it be focused on Him and how He wants to use me right now, nothing more and nothing less. I just might find myself amazed at how productive a single-task focus can be!
Not Quite Ordinary 