photo by jclement
Here's something I've found especially helpful, not only throughout the day but also as I tackle my daily quiet time of prayer, reading and reflection: Keep a to-do list nearby.I'm not sure why I never considered this before. It never fails that, right when you're ready to settle in and spend some time praying, that you remember: I need to pick up some more tomatoes from the grocery. I need to check and see if the laundry is done. I should do some research on printer ink and look up some books from the library. I usually am tempted to get up and do "just this one thing--real quick." Before you know it, you slip into one thing, then another, then another, and the day dwindles.
Now, with my to-do list perched alongside of me, when those sorts of thoughts inevitably stream along, I just write them down, knowing they won't get forgotten but I'll get to them later.. Interestingly enough, right when I started doing this was when I was reading Let God Talk To You. In it, she encourages the same practice to which I gave myself a big high-five for intuition--that I'm not alone in realizing the simplicity yet effectiveness of this simple solution.
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