Sunday, January 5, 2014

Creating 'Joyful' and 'Productive' To Do Lists

We are men and women living in a fast paced world... are we not? I cannot even begin to explain how I have trouble slowing down. I have my to-do list and each task has a due date. I constantly run from one thing to another in hopes to get it all done in time. And I don't even have any kids yet... So who knows how I will be when I have other human beings to look after besides myself and my husband.

It is so easy to get caught up in the little things on our to-do list. My husband always says, "There is a difference in being busy and being productive." OH it is so true... I can be so busy all day long, going from one place to another, and somehow never getting anything important done. How can this be?!!

Something I need to work on is keeping the right perspective. Having an eternal perspective can be hard and challenging.

Virginia H. Pearce in "The Beginning of Better Days: Divine Instruction to Women from the Prophet Joseph Smith" said she "came to appreciate more fully the reality that we are each in a mortal moment-with a pre-mortal history behind us and a glorious future ahead". Oh how important it is for us to do so. She then goes on explaining how we should be more careful with our to do lists. How we should be more prayerful about what goes on them than helping us get it all done.

This opened my eyes tremendously! Every morning and night I pray for help to accomplish all of the things I need to accomplish that day or the coming day. When in reality I should be praying to be inspired on what to accomplish that day. For it is the day the Lord has given me right? I owe it to him to make it his day in completing things he would have me do.

President Henry B. Eyring said, "The promise to you and me in the last days is that after seeking God and serving his children with unwearyingness, we will come to know his will. The promise is not just that I will have the power to do what's on my list of tasks but that I will know what to put there. On those occasions when I have known what should be there, I've found myself glancing at the list as a source of joy, not anxiety."

What an amazing blessing would that be...?! To be able to glance "at (our) list as a source of joy, not anxiety."

With Love,
jm


"Nevertheless, it is now restored unto you again; therefore see that you are faithful and continue on unto the finishing of the remainder of the work-Do not run faster or labor more than you have strength and means provided-Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work." D&C 10:3-5

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