Every Friday I wonder how I am going to get all three of us where we need to be by 8:15. Campbell and I need to be dressed and out the door by 7:00; I drive her to school and immediately drive back home to collect Carson and head out the door again by 7:45, and somehow we make it. Every time.  I think it is a special anointing of efficiency that I rarely experience in my life.

I do not hurry well.

I am slow and inefficient and I am not a multi-tasker. So when my life demands that I hurry, I turn into a freakin’ maniac. When I hurry, I spill a gallon of milk on the kitchen floor. I iron wrinkles into my clothes. I forget to shave my legs before a pedicure (gross). I lock my one year-old in the driver’s seat of my truck while it’s running (true story). I make 84 trips through my kitchen trying to get all three of us into the car. I forget to make a potty stop before we leave and then I’m uncomfortable and angry. I get hot and sweaty and feel like I am completely coming out of my skin, and I teach my girls that it’s totally normal to run around like a ravin’ lunatic, screaming at people because I didn’t plan accordingly. And, as an English teacher, I never realized that hurry has more than one meaning; but as a mama I realize that it doesn’t mean the same thing to my children that it does to me.

And it feels like I’ve been hurrying a lot lately.

I once read part of a book (only rigorous honesty here :)) entitled Breathe by Keri Wyatt Kent that speaks to the ills of hurry…

• “… hurry becomes a barrier to deeper connection with God.”
• “Eliminating hurry from your life will reduce your stress level and begin to open up some space for God in your life.”
• We need to “ruthlessly eliminate hurry” from our lives.
• “Spiritual growth comes from listening to God and responding to Him in ways we might not have planned ahead of time.”

True stuff. I am not sensitive to God when I am in a hurry. I usually don’t acknowledge His presence. I don’t listen for His voice, and I surely don’t brake for any opportunities He may try to throw in my path as I speed by. I swallow a few choice words and quiet the less-than-edifying thoughts swirling in my head and think that I was moderately successful at fronting a “righteous” response to the crazy circumstances of my life.

So, I have not finished reading this book even though I’ve had it for like years (see how ruthlessly I’m eliminating hurry from my life 🙂 ). But my big take-away was the reality that I can change my day and that of my children if I plan accordingly. If I start trying to get us in the car at least twenty minutes before we actually need to leave. Is that a lofty plan? Yes. Will it be difficult? Yes, yes, yes! But I have tried this, and the results were immediate (both physical and spiritual).

I am no guru, and I’ve got a long way to go to eliminate hurry from my life. But when I sit right here before this screen and you and acknowledge the effect hurry has on my relationship with my Father and my children, I want to do better (in a hurry 🙂 )…

What is your best tip for eliminating hurry?  Help a sister out here…