Most days I do fairly well at being productive. I mean, I make the lists like most of you do, right? And I cross things off as I go along as a way of measuring if I’m making progress or not. I even write down tasks I’ve accomplished that weren’t on the list and then cross them off so I can feel proud about how much I’ve done. (Hey, don’t laugh. You should be doing this, too, because most homemaking work is made up of a bunch of tasks that seem so unimportant separately—yet are so important all together—that if you don’t write them down, you will get to the end of the day and wonder what you’ve actually accomplished. So Write. Everything. Down.)
Anyway…as I was saying… I’m usually fairly productive, but yesterday was a very productive day. I was able to get done most of the things I wanted to get done and I felt very good about myself. Actually, I was able to get everything done that I’d really wanted to get done and I think there were three things that made the difference:
- I made a reasonable list of the most important things to finish. (“Reasonable” being the key word. Don’t put more things on your list than you can actually get done in a day. I had five main items and a couple of things that popped up unexpectedly.)
- I stayed focused and didn’t get sidetracked. I worked on each task one after another, in order of importance, and stayed away from my much-beloved fiction books. (Soooo hard for me sometimes, but I did it.)
- But most importantly, I prayed. Yep, I prayed. I got down on my knees, showed God my list of what I wanted to accomplish (and explained why), and then asked for help to stay on track with a good attitude.
And it worked! All during the day I could feel a little extra something helping me to smile, to remember to stay focused, and to keep moving forward. I loved it!
As much as I loved feeling successful, however, it turned out that the best part of my day didn’t come when I checked off the very last item on that sort-of-exhausting list. The best part of my very productive day was when I got back down on my knees at the end of it to pray again.
Yep. Again. Because yesterday I was reminded that the best part of any day doesn’t happen when you realize you’ve been productive (though that helps). It happens when…at the end of your productive (or not-so-productive) day…you take the time to look heavenward and feel grateful.
Warm regards,
Beverly Pogue, The Homemaker’s Coach™
Image courtesy of vorakorn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
