Photo Credit: Kristen Deliveniri
Today I’ve invited the lovely Sarah Loudin Thomas to join us here while I’m guest-posting at Married with Fiction. (I hope you’ll stop by as I share my wedding story!)
I first “met” Sarah online when I started to blog in 2011. She’s a charming, talented writer, and we’re agency-mates. I was finally able to visit with Sarah in person when we had lunch with the awesome Jamie Chavez at the 2013 ACFW conference in Indianapolis. What a great time we had!
Take it away, Sarah!
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Busyness…
I’m pretty busy. Between work, writing, platform-building, church, family, friends, and my sweet little dog I can get overwhelmed. Oh, and I try to do the laundry once in a while. Dusting I let slide. But sometimes I have to stop and consider what it is that I’m busy about. And what I might be letting slide without meaning to.
Reaching Out…
But here’s the kicker. A few weeks earlier, I noticed that my friend wasn’t quite her usual self. I saw how weary she seemed. I noted the pasted on smile that didn’t reach her eyes. And I thought to myself that I should talk to her. I should ask her how she was really doing. But I didn’t. I was busy. She was busy. And surely she would say something if she needed my help. I mean, she was probably just a little tired. But she wasn’t. I know that now.
It’s one thing to be too busy to dust. It’s quite another to be too busy to reach out to someone who’s sinking.
Haggai 1:7-10 – This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the LORD. “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the LORD Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house.”
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Sarah Loudin Thomas’s first novel, Miracle in a Dry Season, releases August 2014 and is available for pre-order at Amazon.com. A member of ACFW, Sarah is a fundraiser for Black Mountain Home for Children, Youth & Families. She and her husband live in Western North Carolina. You can visit her website at www.SarahLoudinThomas.com.
What are your go-to tips when life becomes too busy?
Sarah, me, & Jamie Chavez (ACFW conference…Sept. 2013)
PLEASE SHARE
When life becomes “too busy,” what do you let slide? (Click to Tweet)
The author of Miracle in a Dry Season shares wisdom on busyness… (Click to Tweet)
How to tell when you’re “too busy” (Click to Tweet)
Blessings Always,
Comments 6
Nice one, Sarah! And thank you, Cynthia! xox
Author
Jamie, what a wonderful kick-start to the ACFW conference! Such a highlight for me meeting two of my favorite people face-to-face!
Loved this post, Sarah. I can think of two specific “dark” seasons in my life and man, thinking back, I remember SO clearly the people who saw through the mask and reached out to me. Meant a lot at the time…and still does.
Jamie–good to see you here–and at ACFW! Melissa, I’m so glad you have folks in your life who will peek behind your mask. We all need people like that!
What a wonderful, true-to-life post!
My life can get horrifically busy – I’m running between taking care of the dogs, writing, welding, taking care of the house…and with a really horrible illness, it can get a bit exhausting.
My wife has said that my smile almost never touches my eyes.
And yet, I wouldn’t trade it. There is an area of contentment within the busyness where I think that the Man Upstairs is holding me close.
Author
Andrew, you do lead a busy life! Compounded with not feeling well, I’m sure it takes concentrated focus to stay positive. Thanks for being a bright spot to the writing community–I appreciate you!