My 9 year old has lost 3 teeth since Friday! He’s growing so fast.
I was thinking about how loosing our teeth may be one of God’s ways of saying, “You have to be humbled before you can be lifted up.” We go from strong, meat ripping teeth, to gums, funny faces and childish lisps before we get permanently strong chompers. Even when our strong, permanent meat-rippers come in, and we think we’re strong and grown up, as Brennan Manning wrote:
… God has ordained the later days of our lives to look shockingly similar to that of our earliest: as dependent children. -from All Is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir
There’s a debate in our house about whether multitasking is a skill or a disability.
Some say I’m not a good multitasker and I should work on being a better one. I SAY that, I said that last night, and then went looking for data on how to improve your multitasking ability.
What I found would have seemed self-serving if I had set out to find proof that being a multitasker is not a good thing. I’m really not trying to present evidence to justify my tendency to forget things, burn dinner while balancing my checkbook, and get frustrated when I’m talking on the phone and someone in the room asks me if the dinner I’m cooking is just for me or for everyone. Honestly, I was beginning to believe that I really have a problem, some mental illness or vitamin deficiency. But what I found is overwhelming proof that I don’t multitask well because my brain isn’t designed to multitask well.
I found that multitasking really disables one’s ability to any of the multiple things they are doing really well. So for the person who prides themselves on being a great multitasker, the science says they would be so much more excelling at the multiple tasks they are trying to do at once if they would concentrate better on one task at a time. I also found that these people in my life who I’ve idolized as great multitaskers are actually probably great task jugglers. They really are only doing one task at a time but are able to quickly and efficiently switch from one task to another without “dropping” any.
So I’ve diagnosed myself with trying to juggle too many things at once secondary to a weakness in concentration. If I actually learn to limit the amount of tasks I’m juggling, check my calendar first thing every morning and PUT things on my calendar (not on random pieces of paper), make lists and give one task my full attention, I should be able to switch to another task without dropping the first one… or burning it. I could also do with a little bit of mental fitness and memory training!
I have a LOT of things I want to do. Maybe I need to get a list journal…
Wherever you are, be all there! Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God.- Jim Elliot
Sheila Dougal 