Counterintuitive

The common analogy:

Imagine a table.  On that table is a pile of sand, a pile of pebbles, a pile of rocks and an empty jar.  Your instructor tells you all the piles will fit into the empty jar.  How do you do it?  If you put the sand in first, the rocks and the pebbles won't fit.  You find similar results if the pebbles are placed first.  Through trial and error, you learn that rocks need to go first, then the pebbles.  After those two things are in, the sand falls into place and you discover your instructor was right about the piles and the jar.

I've always liked that object lesson.  Whenever a teacher uses it, they're usually talking about budgeting time, creating priorities, etc.  When I would think of the lesson, I'd usually liken the rocks to those things that matter most.  Things like spending time with my family, daily scripture study, daily prayer, etc.  The formula was rocks = MAJOR things.  In this object lesson, sand was always stuff like laundry, dishes, vacuuming, taking out the trash, cleaning the bathroom ... All those things I don't like to do, but have to do = sand.  The pebbles are like cooking, running errands, grocery shopping.  That's how I used to look at the analogy.

Today, I view it differently.

This week, in my coming and going, I've discovered what my ROCKS really represent and what my SAND really represents.

I realized my previous interpretation was wrong.

Every morning, I awake with an empty jar.  I spend the day trying to fill it.

I used to focused on my family, study, cooking, running errands and grocery shopping.  Still, I was unbalanced.  I felt frustrated because I'd do all of the big "ROCK" stuff and I still came home to a messy house, a pile of laundry, my son would wake up looking for socks because I forgot to switch the whites and I still wouldn't have time to spend the quality time I so desperately wanted with my children and husband.  I was forgetting to send out important e-mails and I even missed important meetings.  The "sand" just wasn't falling into place.

I was at my wits end trying to figure out why I couldn't do what used to come so easily to me.

Last week, I decided to change things up.

I decided after I woke up, fed the kids and got B-Man off to school in the morning, I'd spend some time to do the dishes (this takes 15 minutes), fold and put away the laundry (20 minutes), tidy up the house (15 minutes) and make the beds (5 minutes).  I realized, doing all of that - 55 minutes of work - left me with the time to focus on my family and study the scriptures - today it was the Ensign - in PEACE.  In other words, when I spent time with my family, I wasn't constantly thinking of "all the other stuff."  "All the other stuff" was done.  My house was clean, the kids had socks to wear, I could make dinner without having to wash dishes first, and I knew where to find the books we needed.

I've been thinking about what the difference was.  Then it hit me.

The rocks in my jar aren't the MAJOR things.  They are things like having clean dishes so when it's time to make dinner, I can do it happily and focus on my child who is doing homework at the kitchen table rather than focus on those blasted dishes and the fact that they don't clean themselves.  It's folding laundry and matching socks so my kids have socks they could easily find in the hustle and bustle of our mornings.  It's tidying up the house so we are prepared to have an impromptu picnic on the living room floor without having to move a pile of stuff.  It's making the beds so at bedtime, rather than making sure the blanket fits just right, we have more time to read stories and snuggle our sweet, Heaven sent babies.

My SAND is what's really important.  Devoting 55 minutes every morning gives me TIME.  Not just time, but time that isn't littered with thoughts like, "When I'm done with this, I have to _______."

 ...

Tonight, as we studied scriptures with our children, we read these words:

"By small and simple things are great things brought to pass."

The sand is smaller, it's simpler and it's what fills my jar after all the other stuff is put in.

I've said a lot.  More than I usually do.  Thanks for sticking with me.