Making a List

It’s the holiday season and the end of the year—so many things to do. Not counting the increase in work I’ll have over the next three weeks in my job, I have to finish my Christmas shopping and help mom finish hers. I have all our presents to wrap and possibly shipping the Ohio family’s gifts. I have two more lectures, three chapters and a final paper due before Christmas in the certificate course I’m taking. And let’s not forget all the normal things that need to be done in a routine week: grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, and laundry, to name a few. (Are you feeling overwhelmed with me yet?) Oh—and let’s not forget my all-time favorite thing to do—sleep! So what did I forget? I got work, sustenance, Christmas gifts, course work and sleep.

Last week on my blog I shared about how relationships are hard work and that my relationship with Jesus is my most precious relationship and yet I never listed that in my flurry of things to do. Where is bible study and prayer time on that list? Do I really think that unless I make that a priority and plan for those intimate moments with my Savior that they are just going to happen? That sounds a little like the woman I mentioned last week who expected the fairy tale marriage claiming it wasn’t love if you had to work at it.

Love is a choice. And to keep the bonds of love strong and healthy, each partner has to choose the other person over themselves every day. The question is, in all my busyness, am I going to choose Jesus over myself today?  Even though I don’t act like it too much of the time, he is more important to me all the things I listed in the first paragraph…and all the things I didn’t. I better add some me and Jesus time to that list. 

What about you?