I think another reason I dread Mondays is because I know I have to start on my dreaded "list". You know what I'm talking about, the list of things to be done that you have put off for whatever reason. 

For me it is the all the things I have made excuses for, some of them are really good excuses, some not so much. You see, I've gotten pretty good at excuses. "I'm too tired to mess with it", "I'll do it tomorrow", "I know I really need to call her but I just don't have to time to really talk, I'll wait until I have a spare 2-3 hours to really talk" (ha, yah right), I could go on and on and on. I make excuses for the things I don't want to do, like the dishes, and for things that I feel bad about not getting done. Like making that phone call to a friend, or getting caught up on my blog posts (not that I ever get behind on posts, ahem).  I'm afraid I have been making excuses to try to get rid of my guilt. Which is just silly, right? 

I heard this pastor on the radio once, I have no clue who he is or even what his sermon was about, I only caught one small part of it. He was talking about being tired, not just physically but mentally and spiritually. He made an example of after you finish your laundry you are too tired to put it up so you just pile it up on the dresser. Then when you get home from work the next day you see the pile of clothes and you feel guilty about not finishing the work. Instead of putting it up you continue to feel bad about it and just keep piling on clothes, before you know it there are clothes everywhere. 

This might sound ridiculous to you, but I felt like it summed me up. (and not because I may or may not have a pile of clean laundry on my bed as I type this) I will put something off for whatever reason, and then the longer I put it off the worse I feel about putting it off and then I put it off longer. Even as I type this I think how ridiculous! 

I was talking with a friend of mine who is also in the ministry a week or so ago. We were discussing how hard it can be to figure out exactly what God has for you, and where you should be. One thing I told her was that I think we get so caught up in thinking about what or where we should be instead of just doing it. Just going, and figuring it out as we go. 

A few weeks later and I am laughing at myself for giving advice that I am not even following myself. I get so caught up in this guilt ridden life that I stop doing. I get stuck dwelling, on where I am, how I have failed in one way or another, or how if I could just get out of this funk etc. 

So I have made a decision, no more dreading Mondays. Mondays are a gift given to us to start over every week! No matter what happened last week we get to start fresh. It doesn't matter if killed our diet last week, we can start over. It doesn't matter if the house is a mess, we can start cleaning it. It doesn't matter if we have neglected a relationship, we can send that text or email or make that call. It doesn't matter if we have made a mistake, or fallen behind, or fallen away, today is a new day.

Today is a day of no excuses. 

Starting today my Mondays are going to be No Excuses Monday.

 I'm done with this self defeating cycle, I'm done with excuses.

 It's time to get to work.

Who's in?

Let's do this, let's throw all our lame excuses out the window and do this!