To Do Lists ~ Freedom

This is for all of you type A personality gals that make insane TO DO lists. The ones that give you great joy to make and bring you great shame if you don't have each item marked off at the end of the day. I'm one of those. I love lists. I love to make them. I love to carry them around with me. And I Love Love to mark things off those lists. I have a TO CALL list, an ERRAND list, a TO DO house list & a TO DO computer/paperwork list. It helps me to be productive until... I get overwhelmed by all the "TO DO's" and then I just make a new 'clean' TO DO list in hopes of starting fresh. Ha! Seriously some most days it can be the death of my spirit, it can squelch my joy, and make for one grumpy mommy.

And if the TO DO list craziness isn't enough, I LOVE Schedules. Well... I love to MAKE schedules; brightly colored excel spreadsheet, color coded schedules. They're awesome, except... no one follows them, I struggle to enforce them, and all my time and energy creating them seems wasted. My intentions are good, and I truly believe they are going to work EVERY. SINGLE. STINKIN. TIME. But they don't.

This past month I have been diving into a study called FREEWAY~A NOT-SO-PERFECT GUIDE TO FREEDOM with a small group of sweet friends. All of us looking for complete Freedom in different areas. All of us knowing we have been delivered but that we have not truly been set free. This is one of the many areas of my life that I need FREEDOM. It may seem small to some, but this is an area that truly rules my life & the whole striving to fulfill the Proverbs 31 women goes right out the window with every list or schedule I make.

God has given me a new motivation. I've been inspired & I finally see that to truly be successful & to glorify God in all I do, I must be willing to change. Change the ways I do things as a wife, as a mom, as a homemaker. I'm allowing God to rewire my thinking. Taking what is working for other large families and experimenting to see what works for our family. Trying with everything in me to not reinvent the wheel. Most of all God has taken away my fear. Fear of failing myself, fear of failing my hubby, fear of failing my children, fear of failing those who are watching me from the outside.

*I recently was given this great book from a sweet friend. It's a must have whether you have 2 kids or 10!

*And I bought my 2nd copy of this book 'cause the last copy I had 12 years ago is MIA,

*And last week I spent time watching a precious LARGE family that use a basic schedule thrive because of it. Seeing it in action is humbling and eye-opening.

God has answered my prayer, given me freedom where I needed it, and pointed me in the direction of Him.

I can not wait to make an update to this post. I am anxious to see what God is going to do. Praying for His direction and His hand over every bit of schedule making, schedule implementing, & TO DO list making that goes on here at my little desk.

What have you experimented with over the years that has "WORKED?" 

What helps your family run like a clock & helps you to better fulfill your Proverbs 31 role?