Really?
As I was cleaning up my email this morning, I took a rare moment and re-read my post from yesterday. Wow! Where was I? I hope that someone got something out of it. I am not sure what I was saying.
So I sat back and tried to remember what was happening while I typing. I happen to be sitting at the desk in our study and one of the cell phones was resting before me. When I type, I usually think a little about the individuals that receive updates or those who might read my remarks. I was thinking about one particular individual and thought it would be nice to call her. When I got off the phone with her I was really wondering where she was as well. I chalked it up to "Finals Stress". At one point she thought she had called me.
In the other room, boys were supposed to be doing homework and the Queen was working on Christmas projects. I was trying to focus, listen to the story that was being told while homework was in progress, thinking that any minute there was going to be a punch line coming up because the story was so outlandish, talking on the phone at the same time. I guess you might say that I was a little distracted. Just the opposite of what I was trying to talk about.
How does that happen? Did I realize it at the time? Yes, I just thought I could make it through and send the message. There were several moments that I thought about stopping and finding a place that was less distracting. Then I started rationalizing about what a pain it would be to shut this computer down, move to another room, wait for another computer to boot up, and worried I would lose my train of thought.
Now that I reflect, it would have probably been better. I then started thinking about the conversation going on in the other room. I wondered if the distraction that was going on there was self imposed or if that is just the way it happened. I am sure that those sharing the stories were really not interested in focusing on the subject they were supposed to focusing on. Did they realized they were distracting themselves? I wonder.
Do we do that? When there is something that we would really rather not be doing, do we look for opportunities to distract ourselves from it? When this happens I wonder if we are being short or long sighted? Are we keeping focused on the mark? Will distracting ourselves harm us in the future? Will the distraction helping us hit the mark we are aiming for or will we fall short? In the scriptures, it tells us that looking beyond the mark may often blind us (Jacob 4:14) and that if we do not keep our eye on the mark, we will miss the prize. (Phil. 3:14).
We need to keep our eye on the mark. When there are distractions, we need to either remove the distraction or remove ourselves from the distraction. If we are the distraction, we must discipline ourselves to re-focus on the mark. Don't lose sight. Don't lose hope.
Maybe the mark is too far away. Set your sights on a closer target until you hit it and then take aim at a new mark that is pointing us in the right direction. If that does not work, then maybe we need to ask ourselves whether the mark upon which we have set sight is really the mark we should be shooting for. Take time to review. Take it one mark at a time, noting that looking at the mark that is years away may blind us from the mark that is right in front of us.
So I sat back and tried to remember what was happening while I typing. I happen to be sitting at the desk in our study and one of the cell phones was resting before me. When I type, I usually think a little about the individuals that receive updates or those who might read my remarks. I was thinking about one particular individual and thought it would be nice to call her. When I got off the phone with her I was really wondering where she was as well. I chalked it up to "Finals Stress". At one point she thought she had called me.
In the other room, boys were supposed to be doing homework and the Queen was working on Christmas projects. I was trying to focus, listen to the story that was being told while homework was in progress, thinking that any minute there was going to be a punch line coming up because the story was so outlandish, talking on the phone at the same time. I guess you might say that I was a little distracted. Just the opposite of what I was trying to talk about.
How does that happen? Did I realize it at the time? Yes, I just thought I could make it through and send the message. There were several moments that I thought about stopping and finding a place that was less distracting. Then I started rationalizing about what a pain it would be to shut this computer down, move to another room, wait for another computer to boot up, and worried I would lose my train of thought.
Now that I reflect, it would have probably been better. I then started thinking about the conversation going on in the other room. I wondered if the distraction that was going on there was self imposed or if that is just the way it happened. I am sure that those sharing the stories were really not interested in focusing on the subject they were supposed to focusing on. Did they realized they were distracting themselves? I wonder.
Do we do that? When there is something that we would really rather not be doing, do we look for opportunities to distract ourselves from it? When this happens I wonder if we are being short or long sighted? Are we keeping focused on the mark? Will distracting ourselves harm us in the future? Will the distraction helping us hit the mark we are aiming for or will we fall short? In the scriptures, it tells us that looking beyond the mark may often blind us (Jacob 4:14) and that if we do not keep our eye on the mark, we will miss the prize. (Phil. 3:14).
We need to keep our eye on the mark. When there are distractions, we need to either remove the distraction or remove ourselves from the distraction. If we are the distraction, we must discipline ourselves to re-focus on the mark. Don't lose sight. Don't lose hope.
Maybe the mark is too far away. Set your sights on a closer target until you hit it and then take aim at a new mark that is pointing us in the right direction. If that does not work, then maybe we need to ask ourselves whether the mark upon which we have set sight is really the mark we should be shooting for. Take time to review. Take it one mark at a time, noting that looking at the mark that is years away may blind us from the mark that is right in front of us.
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