DISTRACTIONS AND TO-DO LISTS
Face it. We all have to-do lists and we all have distractions. Your to-do list may look different than mine. Mine is almost always written on my ColorNote App or on my calendar, both on my phone. Yours may be on paper or, if you're a genius, merely entered into your super brain where you have free access. There's no free access to anything that I trust to my brain alone, therefore everything gets written down. And I mean EVERYTHING.
Rarely does my entire list get done. My life is filled with distractions; some necessary and some not so necessary. Two days ago I got a phone call in the morning asking if I could watch my three grandkids because my daughter was needed to serve as the doula to one of her best friends giving birth to her seventh child. Necessary? You bet it was!
Because I'm a wife, a mother to five (nine counting my four amazing in-law kids), a grandmother to eight, a sister, daughter, friend and neighbor; I am distracted quite often. And because I'm somewhat of a scatterbrained creative with adult ADD, I'm distracted a ridiculous amount! I have had to employ serious methods of self-discipline throughout my life in order to be productive. And often I have periods of time when I'm overly severe with myself, even to the point of joy-sucking self-condemnation.
On one such occasion, when I was staring at a very long to-do list and almost hyperventilating at the impossibility of getting it all done, God whispered a very distinct sentence into my spirit.
“Relax and delight in what I have for you today.”
I came to a grinding halt. There was no mistaking that those precious words were straight from my loving Heavenly Father. They cut straight through the wild directions that my mind was going, as if a surgeon was using his sharp scalpel to cut away a cancerous growth. I stood perfectly still. In awe at the Holiness of His Presence. Then I quickly wrote those words down so I would never forget.
“Relax and delight in what I have for you today,” is written on the same app that my to-do lists are written on and I go back to it often, take a deep breath, read it and remember that my God is calling me to meet with Him first. Not just for a quick reading of Scripture and my dutiful prayer time, but for a deep time of communing with Him.
Being mindful of His Presence.
Inviting Him in to every aspect of my day.
Surrendering my list to Him.
Surrendering my every moment to Him.
Choosing to be obedient throughout the day by intentionally being joyful and full of gratitude.
Does it change the way my days look? Absolutely! Do I still get distracted? Maybe a hundred times or more. But it's easier to laugh and move on. I can move through my list with joy, knowing He's at the helm and He still wants me to delight in what He has planned for me. What a way to live!
