It's a gray day, and my workload looks higher than the Grand Tetons from ground level.  It's all important and it's piled up to the heavens.  I've got miles to go before I sleep...

So, why am I blogging?  Because often, when I get really overwhelmed, I fiddle and diddle and piddle around, wasting precious minutes.  As if I had time to waste!?  I wonder what that tendency is?

I think part of it stems from self-reliance.  It's sort of my stress valve, like on a pressure cooker.  If I just relax for a few minutes and do something fun, I find I can return to the great and real business of working hard. 

Part of it is normal avoidance: who wants to do it? 

Part of it can work into self-pity: I have no time to myself.  I'm just going to TAKE time to blog.  I'll get to the work later, but now's my time for me, so there!    (This is not the case for me today, but it has been plenty of times.)

And, part of it, I'm sure, is that I really could use a nap or a vaction.    Homeschool moms (really, all moms!) work hard.  We often are simply at the limits of our human strength, and nothing looks easy when you're dog tired.

But, as I sat down to write all this, the Spirit tapped me on the shoulder gently.  I kind of think that prayer might be a better way of handling this same stress.  What would it look like to turn to the Lord and say, "Father, I am really tired and beaten down.  I'm about out of resources within myself.  The load is so heavy, Father, and I'd rather be playing.  Please help me!  Restore to me the joy of my ministry to my moms (or my family or my kids... you fill in the blank with the work He has given you to do).  Help me to rely on You, not on my own weak self.  Please help me to work now, steadily, and to Your glory.  Help me to remember, too, how I feel right now so that I can retain humility and compassion on my husband or kids when they're down and I'm up in the near future, and I want them to do my will.    Amen."