The One Organizational Skill That Might Change Your Year

I land somewhere in the no (wo)man's land between Type A and Type B on the personality scale. That basically means that I have no sense of balance. I'm either all in or all out. I try to be organized. Really, I do. I try to wrap my head around all the details, but usually I feel like I am just swimming in my to do list feeling overwhelmed.

Have you ever felt this way? That feeling that the more you do the more there is to do, world without end...We live in a world of never ending busy. Our list of places to be, people to see, things to do grow longer every day while many of us are wishing, hoping and praying that there would be a way out. A way to slow the time and cross everything off those never ending lists.

I want to...No, I need to share with you an organizational skill that has made time slow and my pulse slow a bit with it. Every Saturday night I wash the dishes in the sink or run the dishwasher. I put away the clothes that I folded on Friday. Why? Because the next day is Sunday and I've committed to not doing anything on Sunday. Yes, we go to church, but that is about it. No household chores, no pressure to prep for the week, little to no time staring at a blinking computer screen (if at all possible)no worries about a,b,c and d. I choose an easy supper- Crockpot, take-out or scrounging in the refrigerator. We go to church, come home, lounge around, take naps, and just enjoy one another and I don't look at that awful "to do" list a single time.

I know that this can be hard for us. I am that girl that can't sit still...ever. We live in a results driven society. We insist on productivity every single second and that can easily lead to lives that are full to the brim with work and busy. It isn't always easy to stop the merry-go-round or even slow it long enough to catch our breath. The slow down can feel like detox.

Trust me when I say that this isn't a holier than thou, disciplined lifestyle choice. Quite the opposite. It is a needy-tired-cry-right-from-the-beginning-of-the-week that I need Jesus. God didn't take a rest because He needed it after creating this big beautiful world. He took a rest because He knew we needed it. The best way to organize our life is by realizing that God has ordered our days, that He orders our life when we organize it around Him and the rest we can find in Him.

What I've discovered is that the big, bad "to do" list doesn't look nearly as big or bad after a sweet Sabbath rest. Some Sundays my Type A tendencies try to steer the ship and get me to do a million things that can wait till Monday. I've seen those tendencies quiet themselves as I've made the choice to just let it go. All of it can wait. The busyness can wait and trust me when I say that it will all be there tomorrow. Check my sink on Monday morning if you have any doubts.