God Cares For Me

           

          I love birds in our yard and for the most part I’m not partial to what birds visit, although, I’m not a fan of the black birds. (Does that make me horrible?!)  I like  watching them flit to and fro, up and down and around from the ground to the trees and feeder. It's fascinating.

 I enjoy the bright colors of the yellow house finch, red of the cardinal, mixed gray and red of the robins, blues of the blue birds, orange of the orioles, grays of the mocking birds and cat birds and I even like the blue jays, but they can be aggressive.  The little titmouse and hummers are always welcome additions and even the wrens are fascinating to watch.  The woodpeckers are awesome to see visit and peck the trees clean of bugs and such, while the sounds of the mourning dove is amazing.  This list is ridiculously short of the variety of birds any one area may have.  And the music they make is glorious!

What’s amazing, however, is the knowledge that God created these little critters and cares about each one, who sleep in nests in a tree.  They do not work for their food and have to rely on their ability to find food in natural habitats or from those like me who enjoying inviting them in ‘my space’ via a feeder.

They offer a valuable lesson, given their dependency on the God of the Universe to take care of them.  We, as humans, often fret about how we are going to pay bills, get an education, keep a job, put food on the table, provide a home for our families to live in, our health and on and on.  Along with those things I’ve mentioned, is a list unique to each individual person and family.

I admit, I’m terrible about fretting, often about things over which I have no control.  It makes no sense for me to lose sleep, eat (comfort food, right?) or a hundred other things that I could do (some illegal and some just plain not good for us) over things I can’t change or do anything about!  Yet I find myself still ‘stewing!’  Asking myself “Why do I do this” doesn’t always keep me from reaching for those peanuts or not being able to shut my brain down and sleep.

            God calls us to trust Him in faith, after asking him (or telling him) what is on my mind.  We are encouraged to share our thoughts with our Father and nurture relationship.  The Bible says ‘you have not, because you ask not!’ (James 4:2)  Of course, asking includes being in God’s will and he isn’t going to give you something that is out of his will.

            It’s no different than having your seven-year-old child come up to you and ask to have a house (right now) to live in all by himself just because he was angry with you for not letting him do what he wanted.  Or having your teenager ask you for one million dollars for him/her to go shopping.  It’s not going to happen (well usually anyway!)  Even if their request is totally inappropriate, you still want them to ask and share.  That builds relationship.  

            God wants relationship with his children.  We are his ultimate creation.  He loves and cares for us, even more than the beautiful birds that grace my yard.  It’s my responsibility to talk with him daily, read his Word and commune with him just like I would my best friend---after all, isn’t He?  

Eliminating Mental Clutter

           

            I recently heard the expression “eliminate mental clutter.”  While that phrase never popped up before, I totally get it!  I have quite the lengthy to do list and that’s after paring it down to what, in my opinion, is essential.  We’ve been dealing with medical issues that have completely altered the way any day goes, regardless of my time management skills!

            My mind seems to be running in the express lane during the day as information flits in and out, over and under, and every other direction at once.  There are so many “What ifs? When? How? Where? What am I going to do with (and you can fill in the blank) and other questions to be answered.  It’s mind boggling.  And while all this is going on, I’m still trying to write and keep some sense of balance.  It’s overwhelming and in some sense, scary!  

            

            I want desperately to keep being productive, regardless of what is going on around me.  In fact, I feel like I must.  It’s almost cathartic, yet my mind just unravels when I sit to my computer; and add the emotional aspect, I’m often exhausted!

I was taken by the idea of The Eisenhower Box, or as some call it, The Eisenhower Matrix.  It’s a way to take a list of tasks and break them down into four major categories.  All the items on your list are broken down relevant to how important, urgency, immediacy and personally.  

You're directed to use a large grid and sticky notes. (I happen to totally love Sticky Notes!)  The idea is to write a single task on each sticky and place it on the grid.  This puts every task in the right spot, making it easy to visualize goals and aids in strategy.

I heard someone liken this idea to the Apostle Paul talking about our Christian walk being like an athlete’s.  An athlete has goals, some short range and others far reaching.  Along with his goals, he follows a precise strategy to prepare for whatever competition he was conditioning for.  

Keeping this perspective, both from a Biblical and athletic view, it helps give credibility to the idea of time management for those of us who have much to do (and who doesn’t?) and seemingly not near enough hours in the day to complete everything on the list.

Avoiding distractions like social media, chatting on the telephone and busy work because we are unable to focus, can be ‘killers’ to productivity.  If we can keep our eyes on the ‘prize’ – a job completed and well done, we will accomplish more and in less time.  

Still, I find the ‘mental clutter’ of so many questions, crowd out forward movement.  Ultimately it’s stress complications and even a step beyond is ‘stress implications! Perhaps I’m not trusting enough on the God of the Universe to handle whatever situation will arise.  Maybe I can re-energize if I compartmentalize and reorganize by changing my spiritual approach to my to-do list. 

Stress has a way of making you feel like someone has taken a hammer to your body and sometimes even your mind.  God’s got a plan and I need to rely on Him to eliminate those items on my to-do list that I can’t do a thing about!  

How about you?  Do you have a strategy that is efficient but not complicated?  I'd love it if you'd share!  God gives us a vision, but our minds must be able to process it without an overload of mental clutter!

Photo credit: https://www.bing.com/searchq=pictures%20of%20sticky%20notes&FORM=AFIM02&PC=AFIM