The Bucket List

I have never made a bucket list, have you?  At least I don’t remember ever making one.

Now – I have always had things that I wanted to accomplish in my life like …

… Writing the books that change a generation …

… Speaking to tens of thousands and telling them about the hope that is found only in Jesus …

… Making a difference for Christ and His Kingdom at my moment in history …

… Raising my children to love the Lord with their whole hearts …

… Building not just a good marriage but a truly great marriage …

… Teaching the Word of God in a way that is powerful, practical and joyful every chance I get for as long as I live …

… Making hell smaller and heaven bigger!

The above list describes goals that I hope to accomplish in my life rather than just experiences that I hope to participate in.

“A generation goes and a generation comes but the earth remains forever.” – Ecclesiastes 1:4

However – a true bucket list of things I want to do and experience while I am still alive and kicking?  I don’t think that I have ever done that.

Have you?

When you look up the phrase “bucket list” in the dictionary – this is what it says:

“A list of things a person wants to achieve or experience, as before reaching a certain age or dying.”

I especially liked the definition from the British Dictionary:

“A list of experiences one wants to have before one dies.”

And so – I think that it is time.  It’s time to make the expected bucket list. 

Will you jump on the bucket list wagon with me?

“I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime; moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor – it is the gift of God.” – Ecclesiastes 3:12 & 13

Here goes – at last … at the age of 63 … a Bucket List!

1 – To go to Hawaii at least one time before I die and dig my toes in the hot sand. I am sure that I would love it!

2 – To walk where Jesus walked … and to be forever changed.

3 – To go to London and visit the haunts of the classic writers that I have read and loved since childhood. To see the Thames River and the Tower of London. To have a cup of tea where C. S. Lewis used to discuss theology with the great minds of his day.

4 – To take my daughters and daughters-in-law and granddaughters to Prince Edward Island and visit Green Gables.

5 – To teach my grandchildren how to catch fireflies on a summer evening.

6 – To go to a Boston Pops Christmas Concert.

7 – To plan a reunion with the girls of my childhood. To laugh with them over sweet memories, to cry over our girlhood broken hearts and to dream together once again as if we were young and wrinkle-free!

8 – To pray for someone who is ill and to see a physical miracle before my very eyes!

9 – To track down all of my teachers from high school and college.  To thank them for their labor of love and let them know that each one of them made a difference in me.

10 – To draw a chalk masterpiece in my driveway with the grandchildren.

Oh!  And that’s only 10!  Don’t think that I am done yet because I have only just begun!

11 – To go to Vermont and celebrate summer with my husband, my five children, their spouses and all of the grandchildren at least one time before heaven calls my name.

12 – To write a Christmas song that is memorable and instills a childlike joy in the hearts of those who hear it and sing it.

13 – To plan a reunion with my girlfriends from college and go away for three days together.  To talk … to laugh … to cry … to theologize … to pray … to encourage … and to dream again.

14 – To laugh with my granddaughters until we wet our pants. (Everybody needs to do that at least once in a lifetime, right?!)

15 – To take my sons, my son-in-law and my grandsons to the Final Four!  Of course – my husband will be invited as well.

16 – To plant a honeysuckle bush by my bedroom window.

17 – To teach my grandchildren what a wonderful, Godly man my father was.

“A good name is better than good ointment, and the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth.” – Ecclesiastes 7:1

18 – To tell the truth every day.  All the time. Even when it’s hard.  Especially when it’s hard.

19 – To turn every day into Thanksgiving Day – minus the parades and calories, of course!

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His Name. For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations.” – Psalm 100:4-5

20 – To create a beautiful space called “home” for my husband and I to live in the rest of our days.  I’d like to fill it with fresh flowers, life-changing books, the pictures of those we know the best and love the most and, of course, timeless music. 

21 – To play a Chopin waltz so beautifully that it makes my heart hurt.

22 – To pray big, bold prayers that only God can answer.

I think that I will stop there for today.  I don’t want to risk making this all about me and my hopes and my plans and my experiences.

The purpose of this blog has always been about causing you to think … to dream … to pray … to experience … to sing … to remember … and to wring the joy out of an ordinary day.

The purpose of this blog has always been about encouraging you to carry on … to hope … to believe … to live with purpose.

So – I am not sure if that will require you to make a bucket list of your own or not … but honestly … why not?!  Just do it! 

Make your own bucket list and determine today to decide what you want the rest of days of your life to look like.

I’d love to hear what’s on your bucket list … as a matter of fact … I dare you!

I dare you to make your own bucket list and then send it to me! I’ll be waiting to hear from you – carol@justjoyministries.com.

Thanks for listening to my heart this week.  As you know by now, my heart is truly not a perfect heart but it is a heart that is filled to overflowing with gratitude for the life I have been given and for the people who walk with me.  And, it continues to be a heart that is relentlessly chasing after God and all that He is!