“Hurry up!!!!!!!!” Socks are flying. Tears are spraying. Voices are raising. Panic engulfs everyone. The poor dog even knows to duck and hide when this madness begins. And if the husband is at home the insanity is likely to sweep him away too, because Hurry respects no one.

Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way. Proverbs 19:2

You can hurry with your feet and you can hurry with your life and the result is pretty much the same isn’t it? And we have all missed our way haven’t we? Ever miss that last stair and fall down hard? Ever try to hurry through…just about anything, everything only for it to occur a little too late that in all this hurry you pretty much missed everything?

That’s the problem with rushing through life, trying to please everyone, and fit everything in. It’s just pretty much impossible to do. And you will kill yourself and your family trying….

Hurry resounds in hearts that haven’t learned to slow enough to listen to their King.

We’ve all heard the story I was running from the time my feet hit the floor. That’s not a good thing. We all know what it’s like to feel rushed and winded before the day scarcely begins. Trained to live in a panic…in a rush, to live as though flailing about, raising voices, pushing kids in and out of minivans is really going to get us to some abundance in life or at least get us somewhere ON TIME. Truth is, it’s not. Hurry doesn’t keep its promise, ever!

EVERY TIME Hurry hurts me and everyone around me and accomplishes none of  my hopes.  Hurry stiff-arms self-control. It is not patient nor is it kind. It will train you to run others over with your agenda and it takes no time to love a neighbor. It’s only aim is the goal. Hurry may achieve the objective, but  what does it matter if we have sacrificed hearts yielded to the King?

Now, if only I can remember all of that when I need to leave the house one hour from now (smile).

Somehow in this culture of NOW, we have adopted the mentality that everything has to happen fast or faster. The kids can be putting on their shoes as quickly as little hands will let them, but we demand hurry it up. Inevitably they move slower (oh the irony) because now they are frightened as the mood of everything grows tense. They have been through the ringer enough to know that nothing will appease the monster…Hurry. Their hands fumble as do our hearts.

Y’all we have got to SLOW IT DOWN. In the famed words of Miss Ann Voskamp life is not an emergency. All this hurry pushes us in the wrong direction as we push our families out the door…. It causes us to miss our way and in the saddest occasion it will cause us to miss our God.

Maybe it will help if we give up the false ideals of how life should be…. Maybe it will help if we realize all of our hurrying achieves nothing and hurts just about everyone who crosses us… Maybe we can finally see that we need to allow God’s Word to seep into our actual life and living…because He is the only One who can lead us out of such a mess. Maybe we need to stop telling our kids to “Hurry up!” And actually bend down and look into their little eyes and say, “We do need to get going…let me help you!”

Let me help you…. In their small world, those two words could make their day. Isn’t that how our Heavenly Father treats us?

And even if you’re late…your heart will be singing a much sweeter song when you get there.  And I think that’s a good trade.

Let the Word light our way… stop getting tripped up in the dark places where Hurry abides…