I use reminders on my phone to remind me of things I want to keep before my eyes on a regular basis. I was thinking about that as my notification went off this morning that said “Kids- Kat/Lauren/Trinity/Lincoln”. I said a quick prayer for each of them and what they were facing today. I asked God to help me be their dad. It also reminded me of a conversation I had with a leader recently. They were growing in their ability to remember to follow up with a volunteer leaders who had been out of commission recently.
I told them to automate it. Put it in your calendar and setup reminders. Set an alarm. Every time it goes off text the person. Call them. Send a note. If someone tells me they’re taking a two week break I better put that notice in my phone to go off in to weeks to check on them. If I say I’m going to pray for something daily, I’m going to put that every day reminder in my phone. Otherwise I’ll likely forget. I need those daily reminders to workout, blog, budget, change the air filters, and say my daily confessions.
We don’t get extra credit for remembering something without the aid of technology. Even though I didn’t remember without help to pray that pray the prayer still counts. Caring for someone via a prompt doesn’t make the care less genuine. It shows I care enough to automate the things that are important to me. Technology works for me, I don’t work for technology. I use my brain for creative things and leave the remembering of small things to my devices.