Too Busy to Be Fruitful
Too Busy to Be Fruitful
by
Aya Fubara Eneli, M.A., J.D.
Have you noticed how often people throw around the word ‘busy’? It is the number one reason I hear people, particularly women, give for everything they don’t want to do. We are too busy to exercise. Too busy to cook healthy meals. Too busy for romance with our
spouse. Too busy to go to a house of worship. Too busy to mentor. Too busy to
build meaningful relationships with anyone.
But as the great Thomas Edison observed, “Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as
perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.”
I was definitely one to use my so-called busy schedule to wiggle out of many an
invitation and even some opportunities. One day, I got a wake-up call when my then 9-year old admonished his sister for wanting me to give her some attention. His exact words where, “Stop, don’t you see Mommy is busy?” To which she responded, “So, she is always busy.”
Well, I am not one to sit around and condemn myself for not being a Stepford wife or a Supermom. However, I am one to examine whether there is any truth in the feedback I get
and to try to learn from it. There was definitely a lot of truth to what both my children expressed. As a wife, a mother of five and a business owner, I can appear to be busy all the time. Busy tackling the never-ending laundry, busy cleaning the kitchen for the umpteenth time, busy cooking a meal or preparing a snack, busy fielding phone calls for my business, busy researching for my writing, busy helping a child with homework, busy being busy.
I looked up the word busy and I didn’t much like what I read – to be occupied, engaged, interfering, meddlesome, and officious. Not quite the image I envisaged for myself. Now of course the Bible admonishes women to be busy in their homes (on that count alone I know I am getting some serious brownie points), but the same book also refers to busybodies as being highly undesirable.
What we are so busy doing? In 2007 Media Trend Tracks reported that the average woman
spent 5 hours and 14 minutes a day watching TV! And that’s not including Internet usage.
So, are we really as busy as we purport to be? Are we fruitful in our activity or just
‘killing’ time? Someone once said, “Activity is not accomplishment. Motion is
not progress. Being busy does not necessarily equate to being fruitful.”
How about you? How productive are you? Is your activity God or ego-inspired? Is it
time to trade busyness for activity that advances God’s purpose for your life?
I wish you an abundant life.
Aya Fubara Eneli is a best-selling author, Christian Life Coach, Motivational Speaker and Attorney. Her life’s purpose is to empower and equip people to live up to their highest potential. For more information or to book her for your next event, visit https://www.ayaeneli.com/,
or e-mail her at info@ayaeneli.com.