Stay Focused

If you keep an open mind, you can learn something from anyone at anytime and in any situation. I may not be the best at it, but I have always tried to be open-minded--not closed. A close minded person is really saying, "hey, I know everything--there is nothing that you can tell me that I don't already know." We all know someone like that. Most of the time they are of the male gender.

Recently, I learned a very valuable lesson from my twenty-one year old daughter. As most men do, I almost always have some projects going on. Things that that I am working on like building a new flower bed, setting up some new computer toy, or maybe even building a chicken pen. Oh well, you may not be building a chicken pen, but I am! And I have been for the last three or four years. It just seems that this project always gets kicked to the curb in favor of some other project that has been awarded a much higher priority. You know how it goes.

Well, here is where my lesson comes in. My daughter, Whitney, has been gradually remodeling her bedroom. And of course, throughout this remodel she has consistently enlisted the help of her Daddy. Part of this remodel includes the refinishing of her dresser, which she has been after me to do for quite some time. So the other day she won. I had put it off long enough and so, together, we began the process of refinishing the dresser. Unfortunately, we ran into some difficulty in getting the new primer to stick and, as a result, the dresser remained in mid progress in the garage for several days. This began to cause Whitney some concern. In fact, her comment to me was, "Daddy, when are you gonna finish my dresser? Sometimes you don't ever finish your projects. I don't want this to turn out like your chicken pen."

Ouch! She spoke truth and I knew it. I have a tendency to begin something and never stay focused on it long enough to see it get finished. Needless to say, she and I got on that dresser like dead bugs on a car bumper and totally finished it the next day. She was so happy.

Life is much the same way. We have so many distractions that we can't stay focused on the things that are important. We seem to just aimlessly drift around allowing every wind of futility blow us in so many different directions that we stay mixed up, confused and non-productive in our personal lives. God wants us to seek His direction and purpose--He will keep us aimed in the right direction with His whispers of peace, hope and clarity so that when we reach the end of our days we can look back and say along with Paul, "I have fought well. I have finished the race, and I have been faithful." (2 Timothy 4:7, New Living Translation)

What about you? Are there projects in your personal life that need your attention today? Seek God's help and you will be pleasantly surprised--He will be there ready to pick up where you left off and help you finish the race effectively.