I have 1001 details to attend to every single day - well,
that may be a slight exaggeration. At times, I feel like I am drowning in them.
They wash over me and force me down into their depths.
As a young adult, I learned to make lists of my daily
details every night before I went to bed. This helped me to stop thinking about
them, so that my mind would shut off and I could fall asleep quicker.
I prioritized them and made sure that I had everything
staged to achieve them as quickly and efficiently as possible. The next day, I
crossed the chores off the list as I accomplished them.
I felt a sense of fulfillment and pride as the list got
shorter by the hour. However, there were always items left on the list at the
end of the day. Therefore, I added the new details to them that night and
prioritized them for the next day.
My life was ruled by those lists, except when unexpected
interruptions caused me to abandon the index and deal with that issue before
referring back to my detailed catalogue of chores.
As I learned to walk in the Spirit, I continued to make
the list, but not to prioritize the items. I listened to the Spirit and checked
off the chores as He led me to deal with them. The list got shorter much
quicker that way.
Over the years, I stopped making the lists altogether. I
learned to listen to the Spirit each moment of the day and to obey His
prompting for each one of them. I found that I accomplished more during the day
than ever before.
Sometimes, God's Spirit would lead me to do several
things at once, and also point out to me details that I would have forgotten to
jot down on my list. I went to bed at night with my mind clear and no agenda
hovering over me to control my next day.
Prayer:
Father God, thank You for the leading of Your Holy
Spirit, which keeps us in the center of Your will through the mundane moments
of our daily life. Sometimes, I still get overwhelmed by the magnitude of
details that are my responsibility in a short day's time; and as I age, they
bother me more often. However, thank You for freeing me from the demon of
perfectionism, and for helping me to simplify my life by forsaking the details
that are actually not important.
Now, I can expect less of me and more from You. You work
out even the tiniest issues and the most challenging details by Your Spirit,
and You often do this without any help from me. You are amazing, God, and I
thank You for adopting me into Your family and giving me the privileges as Your
child in both this world and the next.
Thought for the Day:
There are no more unexpected interruptions in my day,
because I learned to expect the unexpected as I follow the Spirit's guidance
throughout each moment; accomplishing more than mere human effort could ever
produce, I experienced the wonder of His work in and through me.
- Proverbs
3:5-6
