Tag: work

Posted on

Focus Friday: Let’s Focus on Making Christmas Cards

I love making Christmas cards.

There’s something special about designing, preparing, and assembling a handmade Christmas card for family and friends. It’s so relaxing.

Except when you start making them on December 19.

If you begin on that date, with the intention of getting them in church mailboxes by Sunday, December 22, then it’s not very relaxing at all. It’s rushed and tension builds up in your shoulders and neck. Your shoulder burns a bit as you stamp another image and you wonder if you’ll have to visit the chiropractor or physical therapist next week.

There goes anything you might have saved by making cards instead of buying them.

I bought this stamp years ago. I have no idea what my cost per card averages out to, but I have fun!

I haven’t made cards every year, but when I have, I’ve made some beauties.

These are the cards I made from 2003 to 2008. Look at all of the cutting, embossing, gluing, and coloring I did. And I had four kids at home!

This year’s card will be plain and simple. A nativity silhouette with a star above it and the caption: Silent Night, Holy Night. I think there’s a chance I’ll get them done and in the church mailboxes by Sunday morning, but I’ll have to work steadily the rest of today and much of tomorrow to get it done.

Here are my card and envelope piles, ready to be assembled and finished.

As usual, I’m wondering why I didn’t start earlier. I mean, really, I know Christmas is coming every year. There’s no reason I can’t start a few months early and make these at a more leisurely pace.

I got cards done for church last year, but I didn’t send any to family and friends. I made some cute cards during the spring and summer, but I didn’t get them sent out, and here we are back to Christmas again! (Am I a hopeless cause or what?)

I actually made 15 cards like this. So do I send them out now…or wait and send them super late so they make sense?

Maybe you struggle with doing things on time, too. If so, it might be good for all of us to spend some time planning for the new year that will begin soon. We can look at what we want to accomplish, break our goals into smaller pieces, and schedule time into each week to work on those things.

Then maybe we won’t find ourselves:

*making cards on December 20

*figuring out our finances on April 14

*cramming for a test the morning we take it

*trying to lose ten pounds the week before our class reunion

*writing something right up until the midnight deadline

*cleaning madly right before company is scheduled to arrive

The key is doing the work instead of putting it off and doing things that don’t matter as much.

I realize that all of this is subjective. For some people, Christmas cards are far down on their list of priorities. Something else probably rises to the top of their list.

Whatever it is, we need to work hard at it, remembering that God is with us and he’ll help us.

I love making Christmas cards. Next year I’m going to start making them in July.

“‘Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty.” (Haggai 2:4b NIV)

Are there things you feel are important, but you put them off til the last minute? How can focusing on God help you to work hard and get things done on time?

Posted on

Focus Friday: Let’s Focus on Doing the Work

This is probably going to feel like a rerun for most of you. Taking action seems to be a frequent theme for these Focus Friday posts. I know I need constant reminders, maybe you do, too.

My mind is on “doing the work” because I attended a writers conference last weekend and pitched my book idea to agent Cynthia Ruchti. (The book is about my experience with depression and how we can all stay healthy emotionally.) She expressed an interest in seeing my book proposal when I get it finished. Exciting, right? You would think I would have rushed home, opened my computer, and finished that proposal immediately.

But no, that’s not how I roll.

I did spend one to two hours working on the proposal this week, but that’s the extent of it. There were some other things I had to work on, but I have to admit that I also wasted quite a bit of time doing things that weren’t really necessary.

If we want to get things done, we have to do the work.

If we want to clean and organize our houses, we have to schedule time to clear away the clutter, put things away, and put some elbow grease into making things shine. It won’t get done while we sit on the couch and watch Netflix.

If we want to lose some extra pounds, we need to move a little more and eat a little less. We might need to figure out why we run to food when we aren’t really hungry. We have to do the work or we’ll never see a difference in our waistline.

If we want to write a book, we need to get our bottom in the chair, open a document, and write. The words won’t magically appear just because we think about them once in a while.

If we want to improve a relationship, we need to make some choices about what we’re saying, how we’re acting, and why we love that person. We want it to be easy, but relationships take work.

Whatever you want to do in life, you might as well admit that it’s going to take work. As Proverbs 14: 23 says, “All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” This could refer to financial profit and poverty, but I think it could also be talking about the profit of good results in our lives (a clean house, a healthier body, a book, a better relationship) as opposed to the lack of results (a pigsty, extra pounds, no book, a poor relationship).

As soon as I get this post done, I’m going to go schedule in some writing time for this weekend. That proposal is not going to get done unless I make sure I’m doing the work.

“May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us— yes, establish the work of our hands. ” (Psalm 90:17 NIV)

Do you have something that’s not getting done because you just aren’t doing the work? How can focusing on God help you to take steps to do it instead of just thinking about it?