In a hurry?

In Sunday School this morning we talked about the difference between being busy and being hurried (I don't know what study the lesson was from ...)  I had never really made the distinction formally before, but I realize that it's something God's been leading me toward all fall.  Here are excerpts from the notes I took this morning:

• Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible.  This shows up most often in my responses.  I had just repented last night of treating my kids (and sometimes my husband) as if they're bothers instead of blessings.  That is not how I want to respond to my family.
• Hurry is a sign of a disordered (i.e. in the wrong order) heart.
• It takes training to rid ourselves of hurry
• Hurry makes us chronically preoccupied (this is me!) and anxious.  Watch for these signs that hurry has crept in and make changes.
• When we're hurried, we're unable to be fully present in the moment.  We become joyless (joy is a theme I've seen in my life all fall - from reading One Thousand Gifts, to this blog).

I can so often see this in my interactions with my kids.  My responses to them don't always correspond with how busy I actually am on the outside, but often relate to how busy I feel (what I'm calling hurried).  I struggle to not think ahead and worry about all the things I have to do after they go to bed, and that often makes me short-tempered with them.

Here are my action steps for this week (and beyond) to eradicate the hurry from my life, regardless of how busy I am.

• Build in time for interruptions.  Don't start dinner at 5:30!
• Just because I'm busy doesn't mean I need to be in a hurry.
• If I feel the hurry creeping in, take a minute to refocus.  Even if I have to lock myself in the bathroom or hide (Mark 1:37).  Focus can diminish hurry.
• Re-read (at some point) 'Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World'

This message is so timely during this season!  Although I can't reduce what I have to accomplish in a day at this point, I can choose to be busy but not hurried.  My family is so much more important to me than any of these other things that are taking temporary priority.  I don't want to hurt those relationships by being in a hurry.