Priscilla Shirer just shared a real-world example that illustrates the importance of focusing on one thing — instead of everything.
“I was [packing] some jewelry, and I remember trying to put this jewelry together and I put it in my carry-on case. Then when I got to where I was going, I pulled it all out, and it was all tangled,” she explained in a video for TBN.
Shirer described her struggles to untangle the necklaces and then her husband’s words as he watched — “He said, ‘Priscilla, I think if you stop massaging the whole wad of tangled mess and you just grab onto one, unhook that one, and then just start working to get that one out of there, I think it’ll be more successful.’”
“He was right. I grabbed onto one little necklace, and I just worked on getting that one unwound. And you know what happened?” she said. “The whole tangled mess started to loosen up, because it wasn’t actually about taking care of everything. All I needed to do was focus on the one thing, and the one thing took care of everything else.”
Shirer encouraged the video’s viewers to “focus once again on the one thing,” adding, “I know it’s a whole big, tangled mess, but if you will just get back to the one thing, you’ll find that focusing on that one thing untangles everything.”
Related: Priscilla Shirer Explains Why Hard Work Might Not Be Fulfilling You
The author and public speaker has previously shared her thoughts on the importance of working smarter, not harder.
“To me…one of the markers when I’ve stepped into God’s margin [is] when I’m doing, doing, doing, and really, the only fruit I’m getting out of it is a feeling of exhaustion,” Shirer said in an episode of her podcast. “We can’t say, ‘God, do the work for me.’ No, He’s given you gifts and talents, and you have to be disciplined enough to sit down and do the work He’s given your hands to do.”
She continued, “Here is the Lord giving me the opportunity to gather mana, and I see fruit of it. The fruit of it means….that what I’m doing matters. I feel purpose.”
Shirer also counsels us not to give up when we face hard situations. In a conversation with “Jesus Calling,” she explained, “Our perspective should first be at the sign of difficulty, ‘Lord, help me to be an overcomer. Lord, show me what it means to have a faith that is strengthened and to have an opportunity to give you glory while I suffer. And then I can pray for healing, I can pray for change, I can pray, Lord, that you would make this circumstance turn around.’”
“That’s what overcoming is. It’s having a peace that literally passes your understanding,” she added.
Shirer’s recent story is an excellent real-world example of how important it is to put our focus on one thing so that we can then move on to the other problems that need our attention.
Read Next: How This Actress Learned What Real Faith Looks Like
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
