Margaret Agard - In His Footsteps: I Gave My To Do List To God and Got More Done, More Sleep and Less Stress

Margaret Agard

Parker Wentworth Publishing

IN HIS FOOTSTEPS:

I Gave My To-Do List to God and Got More Done, More Sleep, and Less Stress

Published by Parker Wentworth Publishing

First Printing 2010

2010, 2011, 2013 by Margaret Agard

Cover design by Tudor Maier, www.tudormaier.com

All Biblical quotes are from the Authorized King James Version (KJV)

Published in the United States by Parker Wentworth Publishing

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission.

For information:

PARKER WENTWORTH PUBLISHING

PO BOX 52 FORT MCCOY, FL 32134

International Standard Book Number:

13 digit ISBN 978-0-9767327-4-7

10 digit ISBN 0-9767327-4-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010931210

To my husband Parker whose eyes reflect a life of generosity and love.

One day I picked up my penor in this case my keyboardand started writing my daily life, the way you might share it with a friend or neighbor. Except from a deeper placethe place where I talk with God.

I wrote about what its like to struggleto struggle with the daily challenges of work, raising teenagers, stressing over money, and feeling prompted to reach out and help othersbut being so overloaded with things to do already that I couldnt see how to do even one more thing.

I struggled to submit my will to Gods and to follow His leadings and promptings. He never demanded. Only requested. Or when Id asked what to do about a problem, often Hed actually tell me what to do and then waited to see what I would do. Every time I followed His will, counsel, or prompting, I was filled with joy and happinesssoul-deep happiness.

But time and again, I refused to follow. It seemed too hard. When I did it, my days of submission were both simpler and more fulfilling. I was filled with energy. I was never discouraged or stressed. At the end of each day, I felt deep satisfaction and pleasure. I had true purpose to my actions, even the simplest ones. I knewbecause people told me sothat my simple actions, such as bringing a dinner, making a telephone call, or apologizing, were making a difference. When I listened, my life had meaning.

And yet it continued to be a struggle. Isnt that strange? I was too busy, too afraid, too offended. It was as if I was saying to God, Let me live my selfish life in misery and anxiety. I dont have time to be happy.

It was my own personal Groundhog Day experience, the movie where Bill Murray keeps reliving the same day over and over. That was me then. (Even now when I straybecause who doesntit still is me.) God asked me to do a particular thing (help, forgive, move, trust more, or give up an activity). I didnt want to. I argued, ignored Him, found other things to do, or tried a different way. Finally I did it. When I did, I was happy. My problems were handled, often miraculously.

God asked me to do something else. I didnt want to. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Until at last I got it. The struggle was between what I thought would make me happy and what God knew would make me happy.

Im His child. He knows me better than I know myself. Counseling with and following Gods promptings is what it takes to be happy. Its not about waiting until I have my life in order so I have time, money, and energy to listen to God and do what He wants. Its about listening to God, doing as He asks, and then He gets my life in order. What a gift.

Thats what this book is about. What God wants for me and wants for you, tooto learn how to be happy. All the rest of it the simpler life, the true purpose, the energy, the joy, the focuscome along as part of the package, the life of soul-deep happiness

Margaret Agard
November, 2010.

God gave me a gift today. A while ago, I gave up trying to make my life work with all my lists, calendars, and yellow sticky notes and just said, God, I need help! I have clients who are expecting custom reports, Forest Service growth scenarios to run, church members who need methe Relief Society presidentto come and help with emergencies, two sons who need rides for school and doctor appointments, and a husband who wants my full attention. No matter what I do, theres a longer list that doesnt get done.

The list on the yellow pad gets longer and longer and I sleep less and less. I tell my kids, my clients, and my Relief Society counselors that if its not on the yellow pad, then its not getting done, so make sure you see me write it there. Even then, it might not get done.

Now its in Gods hands. Each day I get up, take my legal-sized, yellow pad with five pages of unfinished to-dos (one on each line) and make my list of priorities for the day on another sheet. Then I take that sheet and pray and ask God what He wants me to do. Most of the time, I cross off half of my list and then add two or three people He wants me to call.

Lately I havent even looked at the yellow pad except to add things and then ask God each day what my tasks are. Im afraid to look at the pad. I dont want to know what Im forgetting. Today as I listed my to-dos for the dayfinish the income taxes, take Ryan to the doctor, have the missionaries to dinner, make the dinner firstI could feel the Spirit whispering, Look at the yellow pad. Look at the yellow pad.

I said, I dont want to look at the yellow pad. It discourages me to see the yellow pad.

Finally, at 10:00 a.m., when the Spirit still hadnt given up, I said, Fine. You win. Ill look at the yellow pad. There must be an important task Im overlooking.

I looked through all five pages, searching for that important task, crossing off the things Id already done as I searched, and guess what? There was nothing left to be done on the yellow pad.

How did God do that?

I wake thinking of The Room. I know Im going to be back there again before my years of serving as Relief Society president are over, and I both dread and desire it. Being in That Room confronts me with peoples deepest sorrows and most profound joys. I witness these and feel my own. That is The Room. Wherever pain cries out for comfort, hope, and help.

The first time I go to The Room is less than a month after Ive been called and set apart as the Relief Society president. While visiting people in the local community hospital, the young missionaries discovered an 83-year-old woman who is a church member. She isnt attending church because for the entire year that shes lived in our area, her husband has been dying. We didnt know of her since her church records had not been transferred from her former home hundreds of miles away.

Now, he is in the hospital in the final stages of death, her family is far away, and his family is angry with her. She needs help and support. I am the Relief Society presidentso I go.

I find her in the clinic of the hospital having her own illnesses treated. I tell her who I am. She looks frantically into my eyes for the peace she is searching for, pulls me down beside her, and begins to talk, her words spelling out her pain and troubles. Then she asks the question. Why is God doing this to me? Why? Ive lived a good life. This is painful. Why me? Why now?

Ah, now I see. It isnt The Room. It is The Question. The Question I am asked so often. The Question I have asked so often. She is one of many I am to meet in the coming months asking this question in many different-but-somehow-the-same rooms. The handbook for Relief Society presidents is direct and straightforward. Even if I know the answer to The Question, I am not to share it. This is her struggle, her time for growth. This is a relief because most of the time, I dont know the answer. And when I think I do, Im often wrong. The answers arent always what we think. But the pain is clear.