God is the Paper

Tara Furman gave us a list of priorities to live by and they have really been on my mind over the last week since the MOPs meeting. Her list was a follows: God, Husband, Kids, Home, Work and Friends. I love her list, it makes sense to me, and since hearing her talk last year and putting the list into practice it has made a huge difference in my life and my marriage ( see my first post for more on that topic). But, I havea few thoughts to add to the list, not to change it but to add a few points of my own perspective to it. I had heard once that instead of putting God at the top of your list, make God the paper that you write the rest of your list on. I love that, now, instead of putting God as something that gets checked off as an item you have done for the day, God is that paper on which the rest of the items are written. So now, he is in your thoughts as you work on the rest of your day, as you work on serving your husband, the list of things you need to do is written on God. As you serve your kids, your house, etc. those lists are all written on God. So now, instead of folding that 100th load of laundry because all three of your children had pee accidents last night,because you have to, it is part of is written on God. He is with you when you are folding that laundry, you a glorifying God by serving your family and doing it with Him.

At the question and answer section of Tara's talk, the question was asked where do we as mothers fit into this list. To me the answer is that we are in every facet of the list. If God is the paper on which the list is written, then as we go through our list, he is with us. As we work to serve our husbands, of course, part of serving our husbands is to work on what pleases him. Whether it is going to the gym, getting out hair and nails done, we want to look good, for ourselves and our husbands. When we get the the section of the list that involves our kids, we are there also. We are not going to be very good mothers if we are tired, frazzled and hungry, so taking care of ourselves is involved in child card. When we go down to the home, we need to find that special place that is just for us to find time to spend with God. It is are own special place, as Tara talked about, where we can go to retreat. So, instead to trying to put a category for mom in the list, we get to be woven throughout the whole list, the list that is written on God paper. It gives me such an amazing sense of worth to know that I am woven throughout the list that is written on God paper that is an integral part of guiding my family through our lives. I can rest in the knowledge that although the list seems huge and some days even insurmountable, it is written on God, he has it.