One Day At A Time

As seen in the HEARTbeat and the Village Voice

“One Day at a Time”

            We all make plans for the future.  I can remember the high school counselor asking the same question to all the upper-level students, “What do you want to be some day?”  He wanted everyone to look into the future and set goals to get where and who we wanted to be.  I’m reminded of the old adage, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably get there!”  If you don’t set a specific goal, you’ll end up just about anywhere, which may not be where you want to be.

            Goal setting is nothing new.  Many years ago, sales trainers would tell salesmen and saleswomen, “See it and believe it.”  They would put posters of their dream car on their walls, or maybe their fantasy vacation spot.  The purpose was to keep that specific goal in mind, and then work to realize it.  If you don’t have a goal, how will you know when you have arrived?

             We all try to manage our time to accomplish what we need or want to accomplish.  But just how good are you at doing this what some say is a menial task?  In all honesty, all of us could get better, whether you’re retired or if you are still employed.  In fact, there are courses specifically designed to help us develop good time management skills.  Being a former instructor/teacher for the State of Arkansas Personnel Management agency, one of the courses I taught to mid-level managers was Time Management.  We could cover such things as calendar management, office drop-in visitors, and organizing your tomorrow.  The latter is a simple task of taking the last fifteen minutes of the day and creating a “to-do” list of items you either need or want to accomplish tomorrow.  Then they are categorized with an “A, B, or C” to indicate the attention each will receive the next day, with the “As” being those needing to get done, without fail.  The “Cs,” those you would like to accomplish may be pushed to a subsequent day, as they may be long-range goals.  It’s really a good tool to help you arrive at the office and be immediately productive, after coffee of course!

            What should we have on our Christian “To-do” list?  Does God have any input into the making of the list?  He should!  Romans 8:29 says, “For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn with a large family.” (NRSV).  God has called us to write down on our Christian to-do list the task of becoming more like Jesus today than we were yesterday, and more like Jesus tomorrow than we are today.  This is called the sanctification process.  We are being perfected.  Now I’m not suggesting we are perfect; far from it.  I think the lines from the Zac Williams song says it best: “… A little more like mercy, a little more like grace, a little more like kindness, goodness, love, and faith, a little more like patience, a little more like peace, a little more like Jesus, a little less like me.

            Plan your days wisely, and be more like Jesus today!