When Your To-Do List Is a Bully

I love to make lists of what I have to do, sometimes on paper but always mentally. However, that checklist can conspire against me like a big bully, taunting me with my apparent unproductiveness. And on a Monday morning, that bully seems bigger and meaner because the list of things to do towers all the more ominously over the list of things done. Especially with never-ending extras like when awful allergies knock out everyone for 2 weeks making you feel more behind. Or when you have a girl whose spacers refuse to stay put in her mouth so you must make like Houdini and magically find time for two extra orthodontist appointments on the end-of-school-year calendar month when a whole lotta field trips/projects/appointments are already splattered throughout.

So, when I read from Sarah Young’s book Jesus Calling, I feel my breathing slow down and my palms dry out as Jesus tells my heart:

“You tend to make mental checklists of things you need to do in order to gain control of your life. If only you could check everything off your list, you could relax and be at peace. But the more you work to accomplish that goal, the more things crop up on your list… Instead of scrutinizing your checklist, focus your attention on My Presence with you. This continual contact with me will keep you in my Peace. Moreover, I will help you sort out what is important and what is not, what needs to be done now and what does not.”

If your Monday looks like Gotta-Get-All-This-Done Day, may you seek to rest knowing He wants you to look through His eyes to see the true “must do’s” from the rest.

{Thank you to all who entered the drawing for Kristen Welch’s Don’t Make Me Come Up There! book. After using Random Number Generator, the winner is comment #1, Charity! Charity, an email from me to you is on its way!}