Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Tutorial Tuesday: How To Complete Any Project (as demonstrated by God Himself)

Earlier in the week, I shared that I deemed Sundays to be "Scripture Sundays," where I share a little something I've recently learned through my Bible reading.  I also mentioned that I had ideas for other days of the week, too.  Well, welcome to "Tidbits, Tips, & Tutorial Tuesday."  Wow, that's a mouthful!  As I work my way through blogland, this might change a little, but for now, "Tidbits, Tips, & Tutorials" it is!  My plan is to make Tuesdays (or at least as many Tuesdays as I find time to blog!) a time to share "how-to's" and other bits of helpful info. 

In keeping with Sunday's theme of the creation, I want to share something else I gleaned from Genesis 1-2.  Did you know that God reveals to us some helpful tips on how to complete a project?  He does! After all, He completed the biggest "project" of all: the creation of the world!

So here is what I learned:

Step #1: Have an overall vision of what you want the end result to be.                                              
God had a vision.  He saw the big picture.  He knew what He wanted the world to look like and what it's purpose would be.

Step #2: Break it into orderly steps.
God is a God of order!  He knew what all was needed in order to fulfill His vision.....light, water, sky, land, vegetation (which would later be needed for food), sun, moon, stars, fish, birds, land animals, and last, but definitely not least, humans!  He also knew that they needed to be done is somewhat of a certain order.  What would have happened if He'd created man first, with no light, no land, or no food?  Or what if there was no sun or water?  How would the vegetation grow?  You get my point.

Step #3: Work on it a little at a time, giving yourself time to enjoy the process! 
God could have done it all in one day if He would have wanted, but He chose not to!  Instead, He created one thing each day.  I choose to believe He did this partly so He could sit back & enjoy each step of the process.  Have you ever noticed that after each thing He created, He stopped and observed "that it was good"?  (As a side note, after each step of creation, scripture states that "God saw that it was good," but after He created mankind, scriputure says that "God saw...it was VERY good.")

Step #4: Finish what you start.
What if God wouldn't have finished?  Well, let's just say, not only would the world as we know it not be here, but we wouldn't be here either!!  I once heard someone talking about how one of the reasons for depression is that we tend to have so many projects started, but never finish them!  Finishing something gives you a sense of accomplishment & fulfillment.  If you're feeling a little blue, my challenge to you is to look around you and see if there is something you've started in the past that you can finish now!

Step #5: After you're done, take some time to enjoy it!
Gen. 2: 2-3 states that after God finished the work (the creating) He had been doing, He rested.  He took some time to just sit back & enjoy it!  It's important that we don't get so caught up in going from project to project that we don't enjoy the end product..... or the journey for that matter!