Wives speak to husbands who are distracted and who pick up only half of what they say. Today, as I was speaking to a granddaughter, she was texting on her phone. At one point, I stopped and said, “What did I say?” She repeated it back fairly well. This generation is adept at doing numerous things simultaneously, even if not very well.
I will be fully present.
My problem is that sometimes my calendar gets overloaded, and I find myself becoming fatigued in advance. I call this anticipatory fatigue, and it’s self-defeating. On days recently when I ended up doing a lot of things that had been unscheduled, but which popped up and presented themselves, at the end of a long difficult day, I was still fresh. But had I known in advance the day would involve driving hundreds of miles and doing all that I had, I would not have slept the night before and been tired before the day began.
So, resolving this—revolving it!—is one thing and doing it something else entirely.
This is not a resolution that can be broken. Rather, it’s a determination to change my way of life, and that will be an ongoing project.
I expect never to come to the end of a day and decide I fulfilled this perfectly. I will “press toward the mark,” as Paul put it.
In doing this, I will need all the help of the Helper I can get. I will pray the words found in a beloved hymn …
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.
Thou who changest not, abide with me.
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
