Saturday, June 21, 2014

Check That!

I'm a "list maker." I love to create list for the simple pleasure of being able to check items off of lists. For me, lists have a two-fold purpose. One, it helps me stay organized enough to remember what needs to be done and two, it's instant gratification to be able to mark through an item that has been completed. When I worked outside the home, the first order of my day was to create a new list of everything I wanted to accomplish that day. I would often look at the previous day's list and bring forward everything that I didn't accomplish previously then add new items.

I still make list at the beginning of my work week. My full time job of maintaining our {Lucky} household has a fairly normal routine, but the "Lister" in me still wants that instant gratification from the "scratch off."

However, my list making tendencies are in place to mask over one of my major flaws....I am a procrastinator by nature. Don't get me wrong, I can finish tasks, chores, and projects in record breaking fashion....but getting started on all those things sometimes takes a lifetime. It's quite comical that my husband is the complete opposite of me. When he gets something on his mind to do he starts it immediately. However his flaw is in the finishing portion of a project.

He started our master bathroom remodel when I was pregnant with Kara (yeah, do the math on that one). I just heard him on the phone the other day looking for a contractor to finish up that remodel. I on the other hand  have a list of things that I have wanted to do once I started staying at home. A list that was started February of this year and I am just now starting on some of those items. That list included re-starting this blog (just started it the beginning of this month and launched it last week. It also included planting a raised garden, which got started in March only due to the fact that my husband helped me start it (it was his birthday gift to me). I had full intention of canning a lot of the veggies it grew out, but haven't started yet. I also wanted to try my hand in homemade baby food for Evy, even got a food processor as a gift for Christmas....haven't used it once! I have a spare computer that I need to save all my data from because I told a friend she could have it....haven't sat down next to that computer in months to just start and finish a task that would take me an hour tops. I have a list of photography ideas I want to try with my sweet girls, but never seem to find the time or a good day. On Pinterest we label lists as boards and items that we want to have, want to do, need to complete, or need to start. And just a side note my husband and my father both say that Pinterest is just one big honey-do-list created by Satan himself to annoy husbands.

So what's my point in all this? It's not to point out my flaws I can assure you. It's just a gentle reminder that even though each of us bear flaws, whether it be to never start or to never finish, we serve a God who is without flaw. The "author and finisher" of our faith, "who started a work, will be able to complete it" within us (Philippians 1:6, Hebrews 12:2).

I love how The Message Bible phrases this:
"Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!" Hebrews 12:1-3.
He never lost sight of where he was headed! He started, He finished. Go over that story again and again, item by item....If that's not a list, I don't know what is!


Life is just one big, long list, and each individual has their own pen and paper. I have lists galore. Chore list, project list, bills to pay list, a bucket list...even a "Things to do better" list. Some are on paper, some are in my heart. I think it's safe to say that most everyone has some list that's sitting somewhere gathering dust because it was never started or never finished. But in the end, they only list that matters is if you are listed with the names of other believers to have finished your race, that you fought the good fight, and you are marked in the Lamb's Book of Life. What a great relief it is to know that no matter by flaws,  no matter how many projects I put off starting, that as long as I can be checked on That List, then I started and finished the One Big Project that I was put on this earth to do.

I have been saved by the One who  is faithful to complete the work He started within me. No matter how often I fail or fall short, praise be to God who is the author (the starter) and finisher of my faith.

Till next time,

Katrina
 
 
"Life's not perfect, but Life can be blessed.
And for me I feel pretty {Lucky} in
the hand I have been dealt."
-Katrina Rowell 

1 comment:

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