The List is Life

OK, so I borrowed the title of this post from the movie Schindler's List. But I want to tell you about a different list I've created.

After attending a recent conference (thanks, Bruce!) I was inspired and challenged to be more intentional about my life. So, I created a daily To-Do list. To clarify, I have a To-Do list every day, but it fluctuates. This new To-Do list is a list of things I am intending to do every single day of my life, regardless of whatever else needs to happen. I've been doing many of these things for a while, but now I'm systematizing them and hopefully making them more regular. Here it is:

1. Pray for my wife and family.
This is fairly self explanatory, I hope, but I want to be continually praying for my wife and kids. In a sense, this is selfish, too, because I'm praying about my own role in their spiritual lives, too.

2. Pray for my church and my ministry.
As I have finished and reflected on my time of training at DTS, I realize more and more the desperate need I have to keep myself connected to the Father. My ministry and the church I shape must be continually given over to God if I am to have any "success" at all.

3. Pray for leaders.
This is connected to #2, because I'm speaking of church leaders. I'm passionate about seeing God's people doing the things that God desires them to do. Obviously, I'm thinking of specific people here, and praying about the specific ways they lead. Also included here is emerging leaders. Praying about people who need to be invested in so that they can become leaders. And, then hopefully my prayers for them will lead me to act in the lives of those people.

4. Intercessory prayer.
This includes prayers for friends, family, others that we hear of who need prayer. Pretty simple, but pretty important.

5. Manage my decisions.
I stole this from John Maxwell. It is great to make decisions, but if we don't take action to manage the outworking of those decisions, then what is the point? I want to use my time well, stewarding what God has given me always.

6. Serve Willingly.
Rather than being a slave to managing my decisions, I want to balance that with serving others well. Sometimes things come up that interfere with the plan. But if I model my life after Jesus, then I must be willing to set aside my own agenda in order to follow God's.

7. Study and Read.
Certainly I'm thinking of the Bible here. But, not just the Bible; I want to be learning each day. This is pretty easy for me, because I love to learn. But, it is also one of my strengths, so I want to be fostering it.

8. Build Up My Wife and Kids.
This is where the prayer above turns to action. I feel that too many days go by where we just coast through life. The result is not stagnation, where we stay static. The result is that we recede in our discipline, our godliness, etc. So, I want to be intentional in this area.

9. Practice Integrity in Thought/Word/Deed.
Again, this seems pretty self explanatory, but I hope it will serve as a reminder to me daily.

So, there's my list. I've got it stored on the welcome screen of my iPhone so I can't get away from it. And now you can hold me accountable to it.

What is on your list?
What things do you need to be reminded about every day?
What priorities might I have overlooked?