It’s been snowing a lot in Idaho Falls since last Friday. Up until that point, it had been a mild winter. I guess that we were trying to fit four or five months of winter into a week. Of course, a lot of snow meant we had to do some shoveling.
On Friday morning, there was no snow on the ground in our area. Slowly, throughout the day, it started to snow. The storm got pretty bad. On Friday evening, a family member, who shall remain unnamed, decided to go to a friend’s house to eat and hang out. When she got back home that night, there was enough snow on the ground that she was unable to pull all the way up the driveway. Fortunately, she was able to pull far enough up that her back bumper was at the very edge of the driveway, and no part of her car was hanging out in the street.
In the process of trying to drive up the driveway she’d driven over some of the snow, crushing it to the ground and making it harder to shovel. She’d also pushed some of the snow forward, compacting it as well, making it harder than it would have been otherwise to shovel it.
Shoveling on Saturday
Saturday came, and there was a crazy amount of snow on the ground. Because someone’s car was stuck at the bottom of the driveway, the first order of business was shoveling the driveway so she could get fully in the driveway. We shoveled most of the driveway, hoping to create a path for her vehicle. Then she tried to pull her car forward. Nope. That didn’t work. Her car was still stuck. We tried shoveling again. Again, her car was still stuck. We shoveled around the wheels. We put ice melt behind and in front of the wheels. I pushed while she tried to drive the car forward. Still, the car was stuck.
We finally pulled out the emergency car shovels, which are smaller than regular shovels, so they can get under the vehicle better. We shoveled with those, and we tried again. Finally, she was able to pull her car all the way into the driveway.
By this time, we’d been outside shoveling for over an hour, close to 45 minutes of that simply trying to shovel out the car. As we looked over at the area where the other cars were parked, we really didn’t want to do any more shoveling. We decided that we’d do the rest of the shoveling later. At the time, I think we planned on shoveling the rest later that day, but we didn’t get around to it.
Come Monday Morning
Because of the snow, icy roads, and other issues, our church was canceled on Sunday. That meant we didn’t have to bother to try shoveling out the cars on Sunday either. As we started to try to shovel out the cars on Monday, I quickly found myself regretting putting it off. On Saturday, most of that snow would have been light and fairly easy to shovel. By Monday, though, it had frozen and compacted. It took a lot more effort to shovel around the vehicles than it would have taken on Saturday.
Lessons in Shoveling Right Away
Sure, we were cold on Saturday, and we’d been shoveling for quite a while. We were tired. Ultimately, though, we could have saved ourselves a lot of effort by shoveling the whole driveway on Saturday instead of procrastinating. We still would have had to shovel the new snow on Monday, but we wouldn’t have had to shovel snow on top of snow on top of snow.
Procrastinating Repentance
This can apply to many things that we may procrastinate doing. One of the biggest things that comes to mind is repentance. It sometimes feels too overwhelming at the time to think about repentance. We think that we’ll put it off until later. Unfortunately, as we put off repenting, actually repenting becomes harder. One of the reasons for this is that as we avoid repenting, one sin builds on top of another sin, much like the snow built on top of the other snow. Instead of procrastinating repentance, we should be “shoveling” away that sin, getting rid of it through the process of true repentance.
Putting Off Ministering and Caring
I’ll admit it. I’m sometimes really bad about ministering to those on my ministering route. It’s so easy to tell myself that I’ll contact the women tomorrow, later this week, or at least early next month. Unfortunately, the longer I put off contacting these women, the harder it is to contact them. I probably should just suck it up and contact them. Maybe, it’s just me, but when I’ve put it off for a few months, I get embarrassed that I haven’t contacted them, and it’s harder and harder to contact the person. Then I put it off for several months. Before long, I’m just hoping for a new route so I can get a fresh start. I can still contact the previous women, but I don’t have to feel like a failure if I haven’t talked to them for a while.
The thing is, logically, I know that if I just contact the women on my ministering route, I can begin to establish a relationship. As I establish that relationship, it will be easier to want to contact them. Staying in contact with them will become natural because hopefully, we’ll be friends. The longer I put it off, the longer I’m procrastinating building a friendship.
The same concept applies to other people that we may minister to, serve, or help out. It’s easy to assume that we’ll help the person later. The longer we put off helping, though, the harder it is to start.
Procrastinating Other Tasks
I think we’ve all had those moments where we’ve procrastinated completing another task. Maybe, it’s cleaning a certain room in your house. Perhaps, it’s going to the store and buying a specific item you need. Maybe, it’s a work-related task or something you’re supposed to do for your church calling. If you’re anything like me, the longer you put off the task, the easier it is to continue to put it off. Before long, the task that you planned on completing last week still isn’t done.
Start Shoveling Along
Okay, I’m borrowing a bit from “Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel” here. Next time you’re tempted to put off something that you should do now, “Put your shovel to the ground, and start shoveling along.” You’ll regret it later if you put it off for too long.
