In my current situation I would say it's because everyone else I know works when I'm off and I work when the rest of the world is getting home. I'm not busy exactly but every time someone offers to do some thing I am. But it didn't always used to be this way. When I used to work normal hours or when I was in school I would find my self busy during the day with my obligations and still turn down offers after simply stating that "I am busy." I would find that I was too busy to even pick my clothes up off the floor and I was too busy to sit and read my scriptures. I was too busy or too tired to do the things I knew I should be doing.
I recently read something about time that I find to be eye opening. It's a story of Satan and his power over us:
"In his opening address to his evil angels, Satan said, "We can't keep the Christians from going to church. We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can't even keep them from forming an intimate, abiding relationship experience in Christ. If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken.
So, let them go to their churches; let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can't gain that relationship with Jesus Christ. This is what I want you to do, angels. Distract them from gaining hold of their Saviour and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"
"How shall we do this?" shouted his angels.
"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered. "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford empty lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon, their home will offer no escape from the pressures of work!
"Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to play the radio whenever they drive. To keep the TV, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ. Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers.
"Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogues, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes. Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines so the husbands will believe that external beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives. Ha! That will fragment those families quickly!
"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted, disquieted and unprepared for the coming week. Don't let them go out in nature to reflect on God's wonders. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts and movies instead. Keep them busy, busy, busy! And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotions.
"Go ahead, let them be involved in soul winning; but crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause. It will work! It will work!"
It was quite a convention. The evil angels went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get more busy and more rushed, going here and there."
I find most of this to be true in my own life. I am over crowded with little things I forget to count my blessings. I forget to thank Heavenly Father for all he has given me. I used to work multiple jobs just to keep myself busy. I wasn't productive at home so I found a way to avoid it. WORKING! Working late hours, working 6 days of the week, always making myself available just in case one of my coworkers called out sick so I would be able to work MORE! It's the sad truth. Did I need to work 2-3 jobs all the time? No. I needed to learn how to save what I did make and be patient to earn the things I couldn't afford. I needed to spend time with my family and show my brothers love.
Now that I do have time off and only work part time, it's easy to see just how much time I wasted. I worked myself so much I was an emotional wreck (and I'm still getting over that). I neglected my spiritual strength by not reading scriptures or even praying. Of the 24 hours in the day, I could not even find 15 minutes to talk to my Heavenly Father and listen to His words. If I had time off, I spent it sleeping and when I would wake I would watch TV and blast my music which most of the time put me back to sleep!
I do not have someone to motivate me during the day and I have all this time to myself and I still find it hard to just sit down and read but I am now trying much harder. I cannot deny that I have fallen subject to the busyness of the world and of a truly empty lifestyle. One day of worship a week is not enough to sustain a relationship with God or our Savior Jesus Christ. It is not enough to redeem us in this ever falling world. To be faithful and true takes a lot of work and to do so we must be free from the ever loud distractions are around us.
The Lord will never tempt us above what we are able to bear. To be busy is a choice and to be too busy will hurt us. As President Gordon B. Hinckley once said, "life is meant to be enjoyed, not just endured."
I have never heard anyone sound happy about working multiple jobs and having no time. It's always an exclamation of sadness and wishing it didn't have to be so. But I know if we just make enough time to pray and do the things that matter most, everything will work out. We will truly be happier even if you do need more than one job to sustain your family. There is nothing wrong with that! I just mean to say, remember who you are and what life is truly about. Do the things that matter and will help you spiritually and then your worldly needs will be met graciously (and certainly unexpectedly) by Heavenly Father.
I wish you all happy holidays! I hope you find the gift of time important and things that will fill it with happiness and spiritual upliftment. Start small and build the habit so nothing will stand in your way. Soon you will find your strength to be strong enough to move mountains. Satan may bruise your heal but will not bring you down without your consent. Remember you have strength over temptations and power over Satan. Don't forget just how strong you are!
Always here,
Ani
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