Editorial
Deborah Wuehler,
Senior Editor
Time’s Up!
Is Your Room Clean?
“Clean your room!” Our kids like to hear that from us about as much as we like to hear “What’s for din-
ner?” It seems inherent in some children
to procrastinate to the point of making
themselves and those around them irri-
tated and miserable. However, before we
fault our children, let’s face the truth that
many of us adults also do not understand
the urgency of time and are procrastina-
ting. I have been both the procrastinator
and the one who has been aggrieved by
another’s procrastination. I think I have
had good excuses for my own stalling,
but I have never heard good reasons for
another’s dawdling . . . are you with me?
Let’s look at a couple of scenarios:
You give your children a set amount of
time to clean their room and they dawdle
as if they have all the time in the world.
As you give them reminders, and it gets
close to the end of their time limit, then
they do what all smart kids do and start
stu;ng things under beds and in closets,
so as to make it appear (at ;rst scan) that
things are in order. Upon further investi-
gation, you discover the deception. What
now? You do what all good parents do:
you lovingly exhort, admonish, disci-
pline, and then drag everything out into
one big pile and tell them to go through it
properly this time. ;ey should get rid of
all the extra junk that is weighing them
down, causing them to disobey, keeping
them from doing other things, and steal-
ing their time and their joy.
Now cut to this scene in our own lives.
We have been given a set amount of time
(with our children, with our spouse, or
on this earth), and yet we are wasting that
precious time playing instead of work-
ing, texting instead of teaching, worry-
ing instead of praying, reading instead
of feeding, resting instead of renovat-
ing, and feasting instead of ;ghting the
good ;ght of faith. And we do it all with a
nagging feeling that we are not doing
what we are supposed to be doing. We
hear the Lord’s gentle reminders about
the urgency of time, and we start stu;ng
things in closets as we pretend to have a
clean heart and life. Before our time is
up, we need to identify our own decep-
tion and apathy and start to get rid of all
It seems inherent
in some children to
procrastinate to the point
of making themselves
and those around them
irritated and miserable.
the extra junk that is weighing us down,
causing us to disobey, keeping us from
doing the important things, and stealing
our time and our joy.
I am here to lovingly exhort us all to
drag everything out into one big pile and
inspect our own lives. If Jesus were to
return tonight, what would we do with
the rest of our day? Would we get things
in order, or would we order something
online? Would we quickly ;nd someone
to teach our kids about Jesus’ return, or
would we ;nd time to do it ourselves?
Would we nag our husbands about all
that they need to be doing with their limited hours, or would we be busy loving
and helping them?
Time is de;nitely short. No matter if
you live to be 33 or 63 or 103. Each of
us is just a blip on a timeline. What are
we doing with our time here? I have been
convinced that even if the Lord does not
return tonight, we are still running out of
precious time. I am also convinced that
I need an overhaul of my own life’s dirty
room, and I need to stop hiding the junk
and putting o; the important tasks.
www.; eHomeschoolMagazine.com
