Make your hands fly!

In the week since I had sinus surgery, my period of forced inactivity has reminded me that I am not good at not being busy.  Like many people, I am happier when I am accomplishing something.  Of course, there is a point of diminishing returns where the to-do list becomes overwhelming and my stress level shoots up, and I do like a "chill out on the couch day" every once in a while, but on the whole I like to be busy.

When I was a child, I was fortunate enough to spend a good bit of time visiting at my Grandmother and Grandad’s house in Ashland, KY.  My grandmother was one of the most industrious people I have ever known.  From morning to night, she was busy – cleaning the house, working in the yard, and best of all, cooking fabulous food.  If Grandmother saw me or one of the other ten grandkids just sitting around, she would say “get up and make your hands fly”.  Sometimes she would tell us to get up and “gin around”, which I think must have something to do with the cotton gin because it meant get busy and be productive, but my favorite was always “make your hands fly” because of the images it brought to mind. 

My grandmother was a very wise woman who came from a long line of wise women.  I think much of their wisdom came from their longevity.  After all, my grandmother lived to be 93 and one of my great-aunts (her sister) to be 99, another of their sisters turned 100 on New Year's Day, and their mother lived to 103.  So I feel particularly blessed to benefit from their collective wisdom.   

Sometimes when I have a lot I need to do, I hear my grandmother’s voice saying “get up and make your hands fly.”  As a child and especially as a teenager, I didn’t always appreciate hearing these words from Grandmother. But as I look back, I think that she was trying to teach us that tasks don’t get done on their own and reaching your goals requires action. I don’t know that my grandmother would have ever used those words, but that is certainly one of the life lessons that I learned from her – get moving, do what needs to be done, and don’t complain about it. I never heard Grandmother complain about the work that she did. She just knew what had to be done and did it. And the funny thing is that doing what needs to be done not only gets a task completed, it also leads to a strong sense of satisfaction and increases the happiness in your everyday life.

The Bible has many verses that address industriousness (or, in Grandmother's terms, making your hands fly), but my favorite is 

^"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,"  Colossians 3:23

This verse reminds us that everything we do can be for God's glory if we fully commit ourselves to it.  What other motivation could we need to get up and make our hands fly?