In the midst of all the recent posts about setting goals and making big life plans, I saw another working mom announce that her plan was to ignore advice from anyone who isn’t responsible for earning an income and running a household without the means for hiring household help! And I thought: yes, you are ONTO something!
Because if you’re at all interested in daily planners, you’ll have noticed that they often include space for writing in your “Big Three” tasks for the day.
I might be interested in planners - or I might be mildly obsessed. (The reasons behind this would be a digression best explored elsewhere or perhaps not at all.)
Anyway, despite the obvious appeal of the “Big Three” idea, I’ve found it hard to narrow tasks down to the Three Most Important at the beginning of each day. Would those Big Three tasks be the most important for work? For family relationships? For health and fitness? For emotional wellness? For household maintenance, logistics, survival?
So let me confess what I’ve been doing more days than not, for quite a while now. (“Confess” because as a rule-follower I feel like this is some sort of a “cheat”. But maybe it’s really a “hack”!)
My Big Three are:
Attend: Attend to God - listen to His voice, hear His word, and let Him attend to me.
Abide: Abide in Him, rely on Him moment to moment, and let His word abide in me.
Abound: Increasingly - through His power —know, experience, and share the depths of His love
For years it was just “attending”: drawing near, staying my mind on Him, reading His Word, and waiting. “In the morning I prepare a sacrifice for You and watch” (Ps 5:3). It took a long time to realize that the sacrifice is one of thanksgiving, and that waiting means joyful expectancy instead of dread! Next I took “abiding” and asked for His help in dwelling, resting, putting down roots. Most recently, I’ve realized “abounding” comes next: bearing fruit and sharing His life.
These are not easy tasks to check off, and I’m still learning how to walk with Him. But knowing that He’s truly in charge, not me/I — and that in Him all the work is done — that is a gift worth sharing.
