Day 180- A Packing First

We are planning on going to see some family that we've not seen in a while tomorrow.  Our family does some things really well. One thing we do not do well is pack and get out of the house at around the time we had hoped to. Today, I packed some of our things the night before in our vehicle as my "first."

To some of you, this may seem a bit silly. You are good packers and when you get ready to go somewhere, you leave around 6 or 7 in the morning.  That is not us.  Tonight is Sunday night and I got home from church around 8:30. We actually have packed some yesterday and today, but not like those of you who leave at the crack of dawn for a trip. 

Tonight, I packed some stuff in the vehicle. It is out there and ready to go. Will this save us some time in the morning? It is possible, but I don't have real high hopes for it saving us much time.  We still have bags of toiletries, medicines, and food that need to wait till morning. I have the ice chest in there, but it doesn't have ice in it yet and after looking at what we have, it is very possible it will be discarded for something smaller.  When we start putting the last minute things in there, it will not be terrible surprising if there is a re-arranging of the entire contents of the vehicle.  The toy box is the one thing that I feel good about. It is in place and should ride there.  Then again, there is always the possibility of that being re-packed at some point in the morning.

 Ready to go

Is this really going to work?

The computer, wallet, meds, and the keys will have to wait till morning; of course, those directions would probably be nice to go ahead and put in the truck.  Just a minute, I'll be right back.

We do have a start; I have little confidence that it will stay this way; where are the fans going?  We can't sleep without fans! 

Perhaps the toy box will stay

Well, it is a "first" to have something packed in the vehicle the night before. Who knows, it may even turn out profitable.  It is good that we have a destination in mind and a plan to get there. We may not leave as early as we hope, but we will leave (Lord willing) and we typically have lots fun on the journey.

In life, it is important to have a destination and a plan on how to get there.  As a follower of Jesus, a large part of the plan is to glorify God by becoming more and more like Jesus.  It seems that it is very easy to know that in our heads and give lip service to that without having a plan on how to get there.  One question that would be helpful here on Sunday night is this, "What will I do that (by trusting in God) will  help me become more like Jesus this week?"  I read something by Dallas Willard where he  wrote something along the lines of (I can't find the exact quote right now) most Christians are not becoming more like Jesus because they don't intend to. They are not intentionally doing things that will bring them more into Christlikeness.

While we realize that we can't become more like Jesus apart from the Holy Spirit, we do need to intend on becoming more like Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit by doing things like getting the Bible into our hearts, sincere prayer and repentance, acts of faith, godly conversations and things like that.  Becoming more like Jesus is a trip worth taking.

Now, someone just asked me to go put something else in the toy box...

Intending to live the abundant life
Barry

3 things I thank God for today
1. I'm a citizen of Heaven-  Philippians 3:20- For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ
2. Garlic bread
3. Belts