The appropriate actions at the appropriate time

I'll try to keep this somewhat brief, but I felt compelled to share this.  My sister sent out an Audio Sancto sermon on Sloth to our family, saying it was a good one to listen to.  My first reaction..."heck no!"  But I couldn't lie to myself.  The only reason I was resistant to listening to it was because I knew it was exactly what I needed, and not because I felt it was unnecessary.

It's something I've been struggling with...something I've struggled with my whole life.  One thing the priest made clear was that Sloth doesn't necessarily mean "laziness."  To be lazy is a form of sloth, but not vice versa.  He defined it as this: not doing what you need to be doing at the time you should be doing it.  Therefore to be a workaholic and out working when you should be at home fostering a family life is also a form of sloth.

I guess my biggest problem has always been doing things at the appropriate time.  I am the world's biggest procrastinator, which means I put things off until I have a heap of things to do, and then have to rush around to complete all these last minute tasks.  (I can already see and hear the reactions from my mother and sisters when they read that last line: "Uh huh, you've got that right!")  This means that I not only don't do a thorough job, *exaggerated nods of agreement from my mother* I also stress myself way more than I have to, disturbing my peace of soul and making me discontent.

It's something I've been working at and I guess you could say I've made progress at (only thanks to my organized and motivating husband...*more nods of agreement*), but there is still so much room for improvement.  Well, it's a great time to work on it being Advent and I hope to be able to look back after Christmas and see a bit more progress.  Of course old habits die hard, so I'm sure it'll always be a lifetime struggle, but with the grace of God, it's something I hope to never give up on.

Here's the link to the sermon...it's (2014-12-07) Sloth in Recreation and Gift Giving. It's only 22 minutes long and well worth listening to, so please give it a try.

It's funny this came to me today since this morning I woke up really wanting to be more motivated and progressive so I sent up a quick prayer to my guardian angel to help me with this.  I guess he agrees it's something I should be working on since my sister sent the email with the link not long after my request. ;)

Happy hump day!
~Lindsay