Hi, and welcome to the Five Word Prayers Daily, a five day a week, daily devotional where we share the word, prayers in our heart.

I'm Lisa Whittle, and I welcome you to just five minutes with me, which I trust and pray will be five minutes while spent.

It's no secret. We're a me-focused culture, right? We all know this. We don't like it, but it's a hard thing to fix. I want to talk to us today about one way I think we can chip

away at this in a very practical everyday scenario. It's something some years ago I caught myself

doing a lot, so I thought I'd open up my own life so we can all learn the lesson from what God

showed me. How will that be? Will that work? Let's do it.

I'm notorious for being a woman on mission, a woman in a hurry, and a woman who is running late.

I honestly hate that last thing about me because my mother was always late and I swore I would never be that person.

And in fact, completely judged her for it. She already knows that. Sorry, Mom. I judged her for it when I was growing up because my dad was always early

and so was I and so I didn't understand how in the world a person could be late. Well, now I

realized the reason my mom was always late was because she was always doing everything for us.

My dad and I weren't

lifting a finger and she, in that very traditional mom role back then, was doing every little

thing, every last thing, and my sister was very young. My grandmother lived with us. And now that

I'm grown and have kids, I realize how a woman who has a lot of responsibilities can be late,

myself included.

The problem with me is I try to get way too much done at the last minute.

I try to pack too much in, and if I don't plan well, I wind up pushing it too much.

I know so many of you listeners can completely relate to what I'm saying right now.

So some years back, I noticed a pattern with me. I would cram too much in, rush around to get ready, invariably be late,

and take it out on kind of whoever was in my path, a slow cashier, a person I was driving

behind, or my husband on the phone, whoever was kind of in the direct path when I was in my

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