I was told by a trusted friend to STOP. What? Stop what? I asked myself.

This caused me to pause and think. Reflection and contemplation are not easy for me. I’m a doer. I fix things. To sit in God’s presence is difficult. It’s even harder to kneel in prayer. Don’t get me wrong there are things that literally take me to my knees in prayer. This is one of those things.

My friend saw my confusion and gave me a hint. She said stop and read your blog. She said I write about all the things I need to stop doing. She said “Stop the insanity, just Stop.” {Obviously she has been reading my blog 😉 too}

I know this was not easy for her. She is one of the few that will admonish me and tell me the truth. I have a few of these people in my life. They can tell you, I don’t like to listen…I want to put the fingers in my ears and say “La-la-la-la-la-la…” but, it doesn’t work that way. God pulls me out of Milly’s realm and into his Realm with these wonderful people who truly love me.

Here’s a few of the things my Blog tells me I need to stop:

• Stop Fear (Fear Grips, Fight Fear, Fear Not)
• Stop Multi-Tasking (Milly’s Giggles)
• Stop Insanity (Living the Definition of Insanity)
• Stop Procrastination (2017…Getting it Done, Getting Back on Track)
• Stop Overreacting (Touch)

I had to stop (hee hee) here because it became a bit overwhelming. I spent a week just stopping doing what I said in these posts. It is amazing what I as a human do out of sheer habit. Paying attention to it was hard. But as my fantastic Moms say: “Recognizing the problem is the first step to solving it.” And sometimes Milly really needs to open her eyes to what she is doing. This exercise chaffed and irritated me.

I had a clear message: “Just Stop.” But stopping my actions made me sooo uncomfortable. As I sat in his presence letting my mind mull over the situation, I realized I felt a void. I was stopping habits developed over decades. The change created confusion and voids. The voids clamored to be filled. The confusion just clamored. I found myself at loose ends. I wasn’t sure how to act or respond. So I asked Jesus what was going on.

Some of these habits are coping mechanisms (fear/multi-tasking) and some are physical reactions to life (procrastination/overreacting). Our society feeds these types of bad habits. Watch out for sugar!…Fat!…Pickpockets!…the President!…The Markets!… Are examples of the overreactions of the media instilling fear in us the ordinary folk. Really Milly…you must stop buying the hype. You cannot prepare for everything…I do give it my best shot! {with a fist pump} Hoorah!

So back to the void, I asked my Savior, “What do I fill the void with?” He answered “with Me of course.” Again with the chuckle whispered in my head. So I took my partial list and looked at each Stop action. What are my choices? What Start action fills the void of a Stop action:

• Fear: Prayer! (and Milly stop listening to the hype!)
• Multi-Tasking: Do one thing at a time. Give the person or task the focus and quality they or it deserves.
• Insanity: Lean on God the Father to remain calm and level headed. Ask the Holy Spirit for Guidance before action.
• Procrastination: Ask for guidance, then prioritize and follow through. Make good decisions.
• Overreactions: Pray first then follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

For me all of the changes require some form of prayer. Actions need to be thoughtful and proactive. For example: I have been praying about all the projects at home. My instincts want to tackle all of decluttering in several marathon sessions. You know like a home improvement program on TV. My guiding force is hinting that I set up an eBay account and just put my purses, I decluttered six of them, on eBay and play with sales. Aha! I get to PLAY! How fun! (another posted suggestion from the Father).

In other words “Go another way!” Aha another post…I see a pattern…I’m following the bread crumbs. My old way of doing things was to sort out stuff and reorganize it. In going another way I will sell and donate. Let’s remove the detritus tying me in place. This is just one way I can use Stop/Start by stopping Multitasking and starting to shed the stuff by playing with it.

This post took a while to formulate, I will be practicing my new Stop/Start game. I’ll keep ya posted {wink}. Until next time, Prayers and Love,

Milly

P.S. Funny thing about the photo, I had an overwhelming urge to take a picture of the crescent moon and the stop sign back in September. I kept looking at the photos (I clean them out as I go through them) and every time I went to delete these, I couldn’t do it. It made no sense until this post came about. Go figure. I‘m chalking it up to another one of God’s nudges…STOP!…LOL.