Sometimes the most important things in life aren't on a to-do list...

...but sometimes they are.

I am just fascinated to serve a God who knows exactly what I need. It's been a bit of an ups-and-downsy week, one in which I have been learning to pray this prayer:
Give me greater capacities to suffer and to carry
This cross on my back as I walk to my personal Calvary.
(from a song by Flame)
I am learning what it means to be obedient and faithful to not complain even though I want to more than anything.

So today started out pretty rough: not a ton of sleep, landscaping day ahead of me, certain emotional struggles, etc. I had an hour before work and was miserable. One of the things that has been really hard lately is continually making to-do lists of things like:
Clean room
Write so-n-so
Call so-n-so
Review Greek
Read this
etc.
and I've thrown at least two of them away without accomplishing anything on them. There are not many things in everyday life that frustrate me more than not accomplishing goals, especially if there are no really good reasons for not getting them done, other than general business.

Well, back to this morning, it occurred to me that the day before had included breakfast, but not really lunch or dinner, other than chocolate cake for Arnaud's birthday party (he's a Belgian foreign exchange student living here). So I took time to cook a hearty breakfast of eggs with cheese and toast and milk to drink and thankfully no one else was up yet so I had a quiet meal, which was great.

Then, I just started working on my to-do list, mostly just by cleaning my horribly messy room, but also balancing my checkbook, and other things. It was ridiculous how much better I felt. When I drove to work, even though I hadn't read my Bible before leaving (not something I recommend regularly, but it worked this day), I felt so refreshed and ready for the day. Then I got to string trim instead of rake and haul leaves and branches, so the variation was great. I was introduced by one of my co-workers to a couple new guys as "the best worker we have, when Barney's not here." One of these times I'm going to figure out how to NOT be taken by surprise when a co-worker or employer says that, and point it back to Christ, but so far I'm always just a little stunned and don't know what to say.

The rest of my day, after work, consisted of scratching more things off my list, including a good time of reading and prayer with the Lord (although that wasn't on my list this time :).

God really takes good care of us. I'm very thankful for Him and just knowing that He knows my needs more than I could ever express to Him.