Did You Know To-Do Lists Are Scriptural?!
I think time management is something that a lot of people, if not most, struggle with in life. Even those people who are excellent managers of their time still have certain areas where they may be more lax or need some improvement. Something that helps me tremendously is making to-do lists. I am very much a list person. To-do lists keep me on track, hold me accountable, and help me not to forget things. They are also extremely therapeutic for me…more on that in a bit!
In my study of the Bible, I’ve discovered something. God is pretty good at time management. I know, earth-shattering news right? 😉 Really though, I’ve learned that good time management skills are important to God. He is also a God of order and structure (for the most part…sometimes the way He goes about things doesn’t seem very structured in the beginning!). God is a planner (see Psalm 33:11, Proverbs 19:21, Jeremiah 29:11, Galatians 4:4, and Ephesians 1:11 for just a few examples). I also felt a bit of kinship with God because HE likes lists TOO! There are lists all throughout the Bible. He even gave people to-do lists.
Examples of to-do lists in the Bible:
To give you just a couple of examples… When God instructed Moses to build the Tabernacle, He gave him very specific to-do lists of how to do it and what to use (Exodus 26). In Matthew 10, when Jesus sent out the 12 disciples, he sent them off with specific to-do lists of who to talk to, what to do, what to take, where to stay, and even what to do if and when they were rejected (Matthew 10:5-14).
So I guess you could say that making to-do lists is scriptural! 🙂 OK…so maybe it’s NOT a sin to avoid to-do lists, but planning ahead and making lists definitely has its benefits.
A few reasons for making to-do lists…
To-do lists hold us accountable—We are much more likely to accomplish tasks that are written down.
To-do lists are simply lists of daily goals. We discussed previously that we are much more likely to achieve goals that are written down.