“What did you do right today?” (You’ll find out – keep reading)
Based on the fact that there are about 17,000,000 apps and web sites out there to manage your to-do list, many believe that the crossing off of such a list is top priority. Get ‘er done. The feeling of accomplishment and thus a sense of peace is promised at the end of the day when it’s all finished.
However, if I’m like anybody else, and I know you people are out there, I was trained from a young age to spend time at the end of each day focusing, not on what I had accomplished, but on what I had done wrong, admitting it out loud and asking God for forgiveness. No matter how much good I had given to the world, my last thoughts as I said my bedtime prayers were how I had messed up and what I hadn’t done well and who I had offended (in many cases, this happened to be the God of the universe…yikes).
This line of thinking followed me into my adult years and into my marriage. I ended most days, as did my husband, with final thoughts of how much I had done wrong. For reasons I don’t remember, one night I changed it up and asked Allen this question, “What did you do right today?” Crickets. More crickets. Finally, after several minutes, he answered with something like, “I smiled at the store clerk.” If I know him at all, he had probably been kind, sought justice, served those he worked with, and treated everyone he met with complete dignity and respect, along with all the daunting tasks he had crossed off his list.
Appalled at how much of our day was taken up with negative thinking about ourselves, we decided to make this a best practice for the end of our days. We spent time each evening before we closed our eyes to sleep asking each other this question, “What did you do right today?” Instead of only beginning our days (which I do as you can see from the picture above…it’s my actual current list for the day I write this) with a to-do list, we ended our days with a “ta-da list.”
Although this was a really nice way to end to my day, something I enjoyed even more was when I slipped into one of my children’s rooms and watched them as they slept (something that still happens from time-to-time, even though they are literally giants at this point). My heart would be filled with love, joy and peace (after all, this was mostly the only time there was peace) and no matter what had happened during the day, both good and bad, it didn’t seem to matter any more. I was completely and utterly in love with them. I was just happy at the thought of them.
To tell you the truth, this sounds a little like the God I have come to know and love.
While the to-do lists and the ta-da lists matter to us, they don’t seem to matter much to Him. He has bigger things on His heart that He wants to share with us, His children. He longs for us to hear His voice in the depths of our soul as He says to us at BOTH the beginning and end of each day, regardless of either of those lists, “I will quiet you with my love. I will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17) This is what brings my heart the true joy and peace that I long for.