Every day dawns with a question: how will I respond to all that is before me? Or that should be a question we ask every morning. Instead my tendency has always been thinking ahead as my eyes flutter open. Most moms usually have multiple to do lists already in view, whether scribbled in haste on scraps of paper or dictated by our phone apps, when our feet hit the floor every morning, which leads to the false assumption of control. Volleyball practices and dentist appointments and meal preparation—the management of life!—drive us.
But what about the unexpected? Not the tragic or momentous unexpected, but the smaller interruptions? How will I respond? How must I respond? “The day is before us, and soon it will be behind us forever; only this once can we live through it.”*
To hear, “well done,” at the end of each day, not just the end of a life, necessitates the focus—and power—of this prayer: “occupy my heart and reign supreme.” But just as we parents choose to focus on the good decisions our kids make—the choice to accept possible failure rather than cheating; the moment taken out of a sports match to show compassion—so our Father in Heaven views us with eyes of grace. The more we surrender to His heart rule, the more our lives naturally mold to ways that make Him smile. The more I trust Him with every interruption, choose contentment in every circumstance He gives, the more God’s Spirit, rather than merely our sticky notes or scrawled, unending lists, govern our steps.
Allowing Him, inviting Him to reign in my heart brings peace and contentment in who I am and what He has given…and hopefully a “well done,” at day’s end. I pray you will choose surrender every day. Jesus is the Source of all truth and life and beauty.
