To-do / To-done / Ta-Da!

While driving along, we began discussing a project we were working on together.  Since we usually have very different ways of approaching planning and doing, we had a conversation that went something like this:  I observed that we had a lot to do to be ready for the project.  He replied that he didn’t think there was all that much, just a couple of little things.  I explained that we did really have a lot we needed to do.  His reply?  “Then you’d better start making a list.”  My answer?  “I already have.”   We laughed because, of course, I had a list started.  It’s what I do.

I love lists—all kinds of lists!  I even have a book titled Listography, given to me by someone who knows my enthusiasm for list-making.  I also have the sequel, My Future Listography:  All I Hope to Do in Lists.  Here are a few of the possible lists from that book:

• List experiences to have again and experiences to avoid.
• List good deeds you love to perform.
• List things to do when you’re feeling down.
• List mistakes to not repeat in the future.
• List the lists you want to make some day.

That’s just a small selection.  When I think about lists to make, to-do lists stand at the top as my favorite.  I love to plan and dream and consider what I might be able accomplish.  I really love getting to check off the tasks I’ve accomplished.  When we complete a to-do item and make a checkmark to remove it from our to-do list, we get a burst of endorphins, hormones that produce a sense of well-being.  I love that, too.

My daughter is a master of list-making.  She not only writes them out, she illustrates them.  She is a gifted artist and uses that to decorate her lists.  Once she created a packing list illustrated with drawings of the outfits she planned to wear while vacationing.  She’s occasionally posted photos of her lists on Facebook; her friends swoon over the results of her planning lists.  While she didn’t inherit the artistry from me, perhaps the list-making is built into her from my genes.

While I love to make lists, check items off the lists, and feel like I’m making progress on something, I have to be certain that I’m not running ahead and leaving the most important consideration out of my planning.  That most important consideration is this:  what does the Lord want?  If I choose to leave Him out of the process, the things I do won’t matter.

Proverbs 3:5-6 addresses this:  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”  He is the One who can and does make things happen.  I have a part to play, of course; I can’t just sit and do nothing. He wants to work in and through me.  I want Him to work in and through me so I need to make my too-do lists prayerfully.  That puts them on a firmer footing.

Okay, it’s time to prepare today’s to-do list.  Maybe I will try to illustrate it with some stick figures . . . .

Questions:  Are you a list-maker or a just-jump-in-and-get-going kind of person?  What do you sense the Lord has in mind for you to do?