Blogged for today....check!

Checklists…do you use them?

I love checklists. First of all, I love to feel organized enough to know what I need to do. Made my checklist. Check!

Then, I love to feel that I’ve accomplished something. Nothing makes me feel more successful than a Daytimer page filled with items checked off at the end of the day. However, the reverse of that is also true….if I have a page only partially checked off, it can potentially cause me much distress.

There is so much that can interfere with accomplishing a list of tasks for the day. Focus-robbers, that’s what I’ll call them. Unimportant distractions that are allowed into the day, such as...television….e-mail….blogging….or just Internet surfing. There are many things that can come first, if I don’t protect myself from these distractions.

Of course there are times when I consider my sweet little guys to be “distractions” from my TO-DO checklist, but those are distractions I need to spend time on daily! Time with them requires an entirely different focus.

Working through this 40-day Love Dare has been interesting so far. I’m trying to process through what I am learning….and will let you know when I process it all. The book is structured with a checklist of love dares, to do for 40 days in a row. I love this, of course, because I love checklists!

There are two take-away nuggets I have learned so far. One is that I have discovered that my marriage is also an area in my life where I truly have allowed focus-robbers. They distract me from being intentional in my marriage relationship. So many times it’s the exact same robbers I allow in my daily to-do checklists…television….e-mail….blogging…Internet….and yes, even the kids fall in this category, as it pertains to Bill. What used to be so easy in dating (time and focus) now requires intention.

The second thing I’ve learned so far is that loving the way God requires of us in His Word requires putting pride aside. I knew I was proud, but wow…..when even the simplest of actions seems so difficult, it shows me how proud I am.

I’m really excited to see what else God has in store for me to learn about this. I’ll keep you posted. So for now, I need to go do my daily love dare. I can’t wait to check it off!