Slowing down saves money, relationships

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Haste makes waste. How that little saying came true recently was a hard pill to swallow.

I got something on my shorts shortly after starting the last load of laundry. I wanted to get those shorts into the laundry pronto so I raced through changing and plunged my shorts deep into the sudsy washer machine. Then I hurried outside to tell my husband something when suddenly I realized I had just made a costly mistake. With an exclamation of dismay, I raced back into the house and started looking for my shorts which somehow got swirled deep into the laundry. I found my pocket and retrieved my precious Fitbit, submerged for only a few minutes, but definitely dead. I was very sad about my haste and forgetfulness.

Then not even 24 hours later, I pressed the preheat button on my oven and pulled some pans from the refrigerator. How many times have I done this over the years with no accident? I don’t know, but that day, my pretty white casserole dish plunged to the floor and broke into smithereens. The homemade cinnamon rolls within were discarded because they had shards of glass all over them. Again I was disappointed. I had hoped to take a plate to my eldest. Now we were six or eight short.

Fitbits and casserole dishes are valuable in that there was a cost to get them, and I wanted them to last many years. Alas, accidents happen.

I can’t sit around feeling sorry for my losses. Worse things happen. I can grieve and move on. They can be replaced.

People, however, aren’t replaceable. Sometimes we waste by neglecting people. Some ways we neglect people are rushing through conversations, half listening, or not spending time visiting because we feel it necessary to clean the house instead. I am guilty of being too task oriented. Another way is playing a game online or messing with social media or watching a television program instead of concentrating on the people we are with. It is sad when we are at a gathering, and people are on their phones instead of visiting. It’s actually quite rude to do this, but it is getting to be a norm. We are obsessed by our gadgets. Why go on a date out to eat to be consumed with a phone? You know?

Our days are short in reality. Let’s slow down and appreciate what we have and who we are spending our days with.

I can get a new casserole dish and a new Fitbit, but I can’t replace my time nor how I spend it and with whom.

Proverbs 21:5 says, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.”

Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

Have you been hasty and lost something?

Lord, help each of us to slow down and use our time and resources wisely. Thanks for the people in our lives. Help us to truly be living with them in the moment. Thanks for our stuff too. Help us to not get too worried about the “stuff”. Help us to forgive ourselves as you forgive us when mistakes are made. Thanks. Amen.