Lists and Letters

I'm a list writer.

Why do I write lists?

1. To remember what I need to do.
2. To help me organise the day/week and give a little bit of structure to my life.
3. To make sure things get done when they need to be done.
4. To have the pleasure of being able to cross things off when they are done.
And yes, I have been known on a bad day to write something onto a list that I'd already done just so I could strike it off and feel some small sense of achievement...I know, I know…

I've got the whole list writing thing down to a fairly fine art these days. I have a diary and a book. The diary is for keeping track of events. The book is for everything else. The book is a simple, inexpensive A5 spiral bound thing. And it serves two purposes.

Firstly it replaces scraps of paper. What used to be written onto scraps of paper – a reminder note to myself, a phone message, the address someone just gave me over the phone, the recipe, the name and number of the three roof plumbers I am going to call for quotes to get the roof fixed – all go in the book. There are no more scraps of paper in my house. Well, not any which belong to me anyway.

The second use of the book is the TO DO lists. I seem to write a TO DO list about once a week. It's not something I do at a specified time of the week. But it seems to happen about once a week because it takes about a week to clear a list (or to get sick of the sight of the old one!)

My TO DO lists include:

1. People to ring.
2. Emails, letters and (more recently) blog posts to write.
3. Things to prepare (like scripture lessons, Bible studies, meeting preparation).
4. Jobs to do (banking, trips to the post office, birthday presents to buy, specific cooking for events or people and so on).
My TO DO lists don't include

1. Domestic tasks – unless it is going to be a particularly BIG week and things need to be prioritised.
2. Things that happen every day – like making breakfast.
3. Every single little thing.
4. Things I know I am just not going to get to – like defrosting the fridge.
But I have discovered that THANK YOU NOTES do not belong on a TO DO list. After we have attended a lovely event or after being the recipient of a gift or beautiful act of service it often occurs to me that I should write a quick THANK YOU NOTE. So typically Ilook for my book and add this intention to my TO DO list.

Unfortunately in the last month I have missed several opportunities to bless someone with a THANK YOU NOTE. Yes, these opportunities make it onto my TO DO list. But by putting "Write thank you note to..." on the list (to be attended to some time later in the week) the spontaneity and immediacy is lost. And by the time I get around to writing a THANK YOU NOTE on Friday for something (for example) that happened last Sunday – when I will see that person again at church before the postman has had the opportunity to deliver my letter – the moment has passed.

And the ironic thing is that THANK YOU NOTES don't take very long to write if you have a stack of paper, a nice pen, some envelopes and stamps ready on your desk for such moments. It's not quite as quick as noting it on a TO DO list – but it's not far off. And it is far better to act on these opportunities to bless someone who has blessed you rather than seeing good intentions lost to inaction because the period between the event and the letter has become too great.

NOTE TO SELF:If it occurs to me that I should write a THANK YOU NOTE to someone then I will not put it on my TO DO list. I will just write the note – and enjoy the moment.

New Mercies Every Morning

This morning I woke up before the alarm, felt as though I'd had enough sleep and decided to put this extra time to good use. I got up, put the heater on, made a cup of steaming hot tea and had a glorious, extended time of Bible reading.

It was God's good providence - He clearly knew the encouragement I needed - as I read Psalms 73 through to 84 slowly, carefully and prayerfully. Obviously there is a lot of material in twelve Psalms but of greatest encouragement to me this morning were Psalms 73 and 84 - the bookends of my morning's reading.

Psalm 73 starts:

Surely God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.
For I envied...

Yes! I was nodding my head. This morning I knew in my head that God is good - but my feet have been slipping. The holidays (ah, the holidays!) were fun but again they saw the predictable loss of routine and my feet were slipping. I found myself envious of people in different situations and circumstances. And envy soon gives way to discontent...

The Psalm continues:

For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
They have no struggles;
their bodies are healthy and strong.
They are free from the burdens common to man;
they are not plagued by human ills.

That was the Psalmist's source of envy and he took twenty verses to explain his feelings of indignation, discontent, misery and yes, envy. This may not be the issue that causes your feet to slip but anyone who does find their feet slipping could insert their own twenty verses describing their own situation and how it eats away at them.

I was nodding my head feeling some empathy with the Psalmist's "righteous indignation" and yet feeling rebuked at the same time. But from experience I knew that soon, before the end of this very Psalm, there would be a word of encouragement. And here it is from verse 23 to the end:

Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
But as for me,
it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds.

What a beautiful encouragement to get my thoughts away from the things of the world and to turn my compass back towards God.

And so by the time I read Psalm 84 I was truly ready to read verses such as 84:1 and 2:

How lovely is your dwelling place,
O LORD Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints,
for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

and verse 10:

Better to spend one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

Amen!

When the morning started at 6am I knew in my head that God is good. By 7:20am I knew that God is good with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.

O LORD Almighty
blessed is the one
who trusts in you.
Psalm 84:12

Garden Update # 5

There was a bit of time and a tiny patch of fine weather that allowed for gardening during the school holidays so small progress was made.

Firstly I repositioned the daisies and geraniums in "the patch" (a.k.a. the bed of clay as seen above in its original state) and then dug holes for each of them down to the impenetrable clay. Then I poured in the gypsum and the boys filled the holes with water.

While the water was soaking in we dug a little hole by the fence for a passionfruit vine. I had been musing about growing passionfruit along the fence but it was a long term plan. And then we had a "Bring and Buy" stall at church and someone brought some little pots of passionfruit vines. What's a girl to do but support the cause and buy one? So we popped it in.

Now I have read that passionfruit don't thrive when grown near big trees whose roots will compete and potentially win…but I am giving it a go anyway. And if it doesn't work, the "Bring and Buy" stall made $1 out of me!!

Then I raked the yard and swept the brick paving again. I have a good plan there…I rake or sweep into piles and R gets to earn some money for his piggy bank – 10c for every pile placed into the bin. It works for everyone – he likes wearing my gardening gloves and earning money (I make sure there are at least ten piles so that he gets $1 or more for his efforts) and I am spared the part of that job that I don't enjoy.

By then the water had soaked into the clay taking the gypsum with it and total amazement – five holes in the ground and not crow bar in sight. I LOVE GYPSUM. So we planted the plants and watered them in. And took a photo.

This is the start. There are plans for more plants – rosemary, lavender, and I'm thinking some diosma. But that will come in time as the promised plants and/or the dollars come available.

The boys have expressed an interest in growing corn, carrots and tomatoes. Interesting - because they haven't read my blog so they didn't know there was a vegetable plan. I seem to remember that when I was little we grew corn in the summer. I'll need to check out my timing there. And the section where the corn will go is my first target area for the composting project.

Good work.

Do Thy Work

Troubled soul, thou art not bound to feel, but thou art bound to arise. God loves thee whether thou feelest or not. … Try not to feel good when thou art not good, but cry to Him who is good. He changes not because thou changest. Nay, he has an especial tenderness of love towards thee for that thou art in the dark and hast no light, and his heart is glad when thou dost arise and say, "I will go to my Father." For he sees thee through all the gloom through which thou canst not see him. Will thou his will. Say to him: "My God, I am very dull and low and hard; but thou art wise and high and tender, and thou art my God. I am thy child. Forsake me not." Then fold the arms of thy faith, and wait in quietness until light goes up in thy darkness. Fold the arms of thy Faith I say, but not of thy Action: bethink thee of something that thou oughtest to do, and go and do it, if it be but the sweeping of a room, or the preparing of a meal, or a visit to a friend. Heed not thy feelings: Do thy work.

From "Unspoken Sermons" by George MacDonald.