To Do or Not To Do

I think that I may have a kind of love/hate relationship with my to do list. I love the structure that it gives my day. I hate how it can rule my day. And one thing worse than having an uncompleted to do list is misplacing that list!

Regularly, I list far more tasks than can be completed in one day. A glance at the unfinished list before I crawl into bed can totally steal my rest as my mind wrestles with the list and how I will fit today’s undone jobs into tomorrow’s already full day.

God whispers “Don’t worry.”

“Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Matt.6:27)

Well, I have proven that verse over and over! If all the worrying that I have done added hours to my day, I would have had all the extra time that I needed to complete every to do list that I have written!

Here’s another verse from the same chapter: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (vs.34)

I don’t mean to be disrespectful – but seriously?! You know the people who always say,”Just take one day at a time.”? (Okay – I’ve said that!) So –is that what this is saying? Each day has enough trouble of its own – so really just concentrate on worrying about today. Tomorrow you can worry about tomorrow. Put that on your to do list!

In among these verses about worry are reminders. God knows. God knows what you need. God knows your concerns. God knows – so don’t worry. Not today. Not tomorrow.

When you see a ‘therefore’ in scripture, it is a good practice to read what came before it – kind of a ‘what’s the therefore there for?’ In this case, the “therefore do not worry…” follows this verse: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Your Father knows – so seek him.

Seek him instead of worrying.

Seek him. Learn of him. Know him.

Then go ahead – try to worry. It won’t work! You can stroke that worry time off your to do list! In its place write “seek first”. Better results. Guaranteed!

Ruth