Kindness Starts at Home

I have long believed that one of our most important purposes on earth has to do with how we treat others.  Kindness, compassion, mercy, love, and selflessness are the characteristics that if learned and lived daily will mark the truly great life.  In the final analysis, our positions, our prosperity, our accomplishments, and our looks will have no bearing whatsoever on our ultimate success.  God simply looks past those things and straight at our heart.

I find it baffling that sometimes we seem to treat complete strangers or casual acquaintances with more kindness than we do those to whom we are closest.  I understand this is often because of our familiarity with our families and love ones.  After all, we've seen them at their best and their worst.  Maybe we feel justified because we think they will always forgive us...they are family, right?

The more I experience in life, however, I believe that our public persona (the person we show to the world) should in reality be a reflection of who we are privately.  It is our private person where the real "me" shines forth.  Who are you being in your home, with your family, and maybe most importantly alone?  It is that person with whom God is most concerned.  In other words, I don't believe that there should be a double standard.  We should be consistently kind, considerate, and full of compassion no matter where we find ourselves.

Procrastination...the death of good intentions

I know I have struggled with procrastination throughout my life in one degree or another.  My guess is that this is pretty common.  Putting off doing things until later can be SOOOO easy to do.  And why not?  Who wants to do all those difficult tasks right now?  I'd much rather do something that I ENJOY doing or that doesn't require much thought or effort and leave the really important things that I NEED to do until later.  I'll always have time later, right?  Sadly, this misconception about time is all too prevalent.  The fact is, if we put off all of our good intentions until later, what do we have? The answer is typically not much...very little growth, lack-luster improvement, no really important accomplishments, and you're left with the satisfaction of only completing something of minor significance instead of something that can really make a difference.  Someone once told me that he was questioning whether or not he should start on his advanced degree or work for another couple of years before starting.  His father told him, "Well, in three years you'll be three years older with an advanced degree or you'll be three years older without the degree.  Either way, the same time will pass."  Hmmm...so simple, yet so true.  Doesn't that apply to anything we do?

1. In an hour after school, I can finish my homework or I can watch a re-run on TV.  Either way, the same hour goes by.  Which will be most helpful?
2. I have a week before an assignment is due.  I can work on that assignment consistently for a few minutes (or an hour) each day (which, by the way, will lead to less stress and better learning), or I can let the week go idly by and spend many minutes (or hours) the night before cramming to get it done.  Either way, the same week still passes.

Often when we procrastinate, we feel that we'll have time later to get our tasks done.  What really ends of happening in too many cases is that we start late and run out of time to do the job adequately.  We end up trying to cram too much into too little time.  This does not provide for optimal results (and many times the results can be disastrous).  A great example of this is an assignment to read a book in school.  If we consistently read a few minutes everyday, we find that we get through the book easily in the assigned time period and even have time for thoughtful analysis.  On the other hand, if we put off reading always thinking, "Oh, I'll have time later," then we often end up reading spark notes right before the assignment is due trying to come to a very low level of understanding just to pass a quiz or a test.  In other words, disaster at worst or passing with no real learning taking place at best.  

If I can suggest one area of your life to definitely not procrastinate, that would be in the development of your testimony of Jesus Christ.  If you constantly go through life, thinking "I'll do it later," your good intentions will die having never come to fruition.  They will remain intentions...something you fully intended to do, but somehow never got around to it.  When it comes down to it, your testimony is less about what you know in your head and more about what you become in your heart.  Can you really fully become what God wants you to become by cramming with life's spark notes in desperation as you realize you've nearly waited until it was too late.  I'm not sure even "spark" and his notes can help at that point.  It is much better to just do it NOW and make that a common practice in every area of your life. Why not let your good intentions become what they really should be...great accomplishments!