The books that didn't make the list

We are book people.  If you had looked in our house a few weeks ago you would have seen piles of books in our bedroom, bins of books in the garage, and bookshelves full of them.

We've moved five times in our seven and a half years of marriage, and each time we go through our books, get rid of some, and pack away the others to save for another time.  Some have been read multiple times, others are still collecting dust for that perfect rainy day when we have time to sit and read {I think that might not come until our children are grown}.

As we've been preparing to put our house on the market, we went through the books yet again.  I took out a few that are on my list for 2014; I was trying to be realistic this year and not tackle more than I thought possible, so I think I started with maybe eight.  And, while I'm making good progress on those books, I was struck one day while reading to my kids:

How many books am I going to read this year that didn't make the list?

Books like Green Eggs and Ham, Biscuit's Snowy Day, The Little Engine that Could, and countless others that my children will hand to me as they climb on my lap to read and snuggle.

Could it be that some of my greatest reading accomplishments this year will be board books, paperbacks, and other children's classics that we read over and over again?  Not because they challenge my thinking or help me to grow in my knowledge of God, but because by reading them I'm spending time with my kids and instilling in them a love for reading.

And what about all of those goals?  Maybe some of the greatest goals we meet this year will be ones that we didn't plan.  Because we can plan and prepare and strive toward something, but in the end it's about what God has in store, His plans, His goals, His purposes.

God is at work in us, and if we desire to truly be sanctified, we will embrace those things that didn't make the list, but that come into our lives because God wants to make us more like Him.