Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Fifth Bucket List Item

Bucket item 1
Learn how to be a woman of prayer with the faith to match!
 
Bucket item 2
Live everyday believing that I am created in God's image
and because of it I have important work to do in His Kingdom.

Bucket item 3
Live my life saying "yes" to only those things that God has for me.

Bucket item 4
Make my first response to an enemy be one of forgiveness.

When I started out with my Jesus follower bucket list I limited it to five. Over the course of these last several days I realized that I could come up with any number of additional character traits that I would like to be a part of my life by the end of my life.

For this exercise I'm going to keep my list to five because as my bucket list looks now I have a lot to work on! There is one trait that I would really like to have and have it as natural as breathing. It's based on 2 Corinthians 12:9 My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. I don't like to be weak or feel weak. My name means "strong" its root in the Latin word for "valor." Weakness is not part of my nature and yet repeatedly I come up against my weakness.

To recognize weakness, in the context of a Jesus follower, is in reality a strength. To be able to accept and embrace, as a way of living, that God's power can only be truly revealed when I am limp as a noodle, unable to do anything on my own is a gift. A gift that I am long from being able to receive. With each difficulty, each challenge, each road block I find that accepting my weakness is my weakness.

This is the final quality that goes into my bucket list as a Jesus follower--

Bucket Item 5
Learn to embrace my weakness and allow God's power to be strong.

2 comments:

Maureen said...

I just recently came across your blog, via a quilting blog. Your idea of a "Jesus follower bucket list" was something I had never thought of, but it makes so much sense. I am grateful that God led me to your blog.

Valerie Jordan Mangrum said...

Thank you, Maureen for your encouraging words. Having a bucket list and working on it is the challenge!