Do not idle

When I was a kid growing up in Dorchester, Mass., just outside of Boston; my Mom used to send me to the grocery store.  Sometimes I went by myself and sometimes she made me take my little sister which of course annoyed me.  But without fail, every time she sent me to the store she said 'do not idle.'  One day I asked her what 'idle' meant, and she said that it meant I was not to stop at my friends house or even stop on the side walk to chit chat. I was not to stop at the corner store to buy candy or chips. I was not allowed to let anyone stop me from my errand: going to the store, or coming back from the store.
Well, I wasn't a perfect kid, but I wasn't an idler.  I think it had something to do with being the oldest of five.  I was given more responsibilities and more was expected of me.  I was blamed if the house wasn't clean when my parents got home from work for instance. So of course I was what my siblings called 'bossy'!  The nerve of those people!
Alas, I digress! 
Idle.  Do you know that as adults we can and do idle? Another word for idle could be procrastinate, putting things off until another time, after time, after time.  Then before you know it a year has gone by, two years, five years, 10 year, then 20! By which time you have compiled a wish list of things you believe are now too late to start or finish. 
I have good news for you!  As long as you are alive you have a chance.  Stop making excuses.  I took classes online: one of the most difficult ways to attend school, with people who were doing the same thing while taking care of small children and working full time.  In fact, when you obtain or achieve a goal later in life, it means more to you.  You cherish it more. 
Stop waiting for some day, tomorrow, Monday, January; when your kids are older...there will never be a perfect time.  Sit down, count the costs: "For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?"
Luke 14:28.  In other words, use common sense; which you probably have more of as you experience life, but do not use 'circumstances' as an excuse.  
Step out, or as the hymn says, launch out into the deep.  Because any fisherman will tell you, the fish are out in the deep, all you get in the shallows is mud and muck. 
Do not idle.