We will never finish everything on our to-do lists. It’s not possible, and that is life! ~Susan L. Taylor
Do you make lists of things you want to get done? I do. Sometimes then I do lose those lists in the papers that seem to reproduce on my desk. I might come across the list weeks or even months later and feel relieved if I accomplished the things I’d listed or if I didn’t, I might transfer them to a new list.
Other times, I’ll see the list or reminder and it won’t tell me enough to remember what I was supposed to be reminded about. I looked at my notes on my phone last week and there was a name. Obviously I put it on there to remember that person for some reason, but now I have no idea who the person is or what I was supposed to remember about her.
We are all so busy with so many things pulling at our attention. Do this. Watch that. Learn more. Don’t forget. Hurry up. Get it done.
So when writing a blog post was on my list today, I needed to find a list of ideas about what to write. For some reason, that made the quote in the picture I posted come to mind along with that mystery name I obviously don’t remember. Sometimes lists don’t do the job. Sometimes they do. It can give you a feeling of accomplishment to mark something off your to-do list. It’s a great way to keep your deadlines in front of you so that you won’t let them slip by unnoticed. As long as you don’t lose your list, that is.
I didn’t find a list of idea for blog posts. Instead I pulled up my file of quotes and more that I have used over the years in the bulletins I do for my little church. I started keeping that list so that I wouldn’t put the same hymns in the bulletin for us to sing every other week. Then I started adding the quotes I use in the bulletins to try to make them interesting, inspiring or perhaps worthy of a smile.
Tonight, I scrolled through the list looking for the list quote about making lists. I ended up not finding it the first time through since the quote about lists doesn’t have “list” in it. But I did find some other good things to share.
Be a warrior not a worrier. Create a list of all the times you’ve gotten things you didn’t think were gettable. When faith is lagging, lug out this list. ..Karen Salmansohn
What a great idea to help us remember the good things! A blessing list or an answered prayer list or a dreams come true list or goals accomplished list. Name it whatever you like, but it would surely be a list to treasure.
Then this was a gratitude jump-start list I must have come across sometime to help my church family remember some of the everyday happy pleasures of life.
- Bumping into an old friend
- Raindrops on petals
- A child’s giggle
- A good book
- Shared laughter
- Dragonflies
- Soft pillows and sweet dreams
- Starlit nights
What would you add to this list? I might say a walk in the sunshine. A kitten’s purr. A dog’s wagging tail.
Last of all, because my search word was “list” and that brought up everything with listen in it, this story popped up. And since it could be on a list of things to make you smile, I’m sharing it too.
A nurse on the pediatric floor, before listening to the little ones’ hearts, would plug the stethoscope into their ears and let them listen to their own hearts. Their eyes would always light up with wonder, but she never got a response to equal four-year-old David’s. When she gently tucked the stethoscope into his ears and placed the disk over his heart, she said, “Listen. What do you suppose that is?” He drew his eyebrows together in a puzzled line and looked up as if lost in the mystery of the strange tap-tap-tapping deep in his chest. And then his face broke out in a wondrous grin as he asked, “Is that Jesus knocking?”
While I’ve wandered a bit here and there on my idea of making lists, maybe it all ties together somehow and I can cross writing this blog post off my list tonight.
What kind of lists do you like to make?