Priorities

How would you rank the most important things in your life? If we’re aiming for the “right” answer, we might say that God is more important than anything. Then we might rank our family next, followed by friends and other people, maybe our job, our volunteer efforts and interests, and perhaps hobbies or other passions somewhere in there. Numerous other things might be important, but further down the list.

Go ahead–take a moment to think about which things are actually most important to you.

Now ask yourself where you invest the greatest share of your time, your attention, and your resources. For many of us, work might find its way to the top of that list. People spend a lot of time at their job, and when they’re not “working” they may be worrying about work, checking emails, or putting out fires. If we’re honest, our homes, cars, and other material goods receive much of our hard-earned resources. Maybe we spend a lot of our non-work time on entertainment.

Lifestyles vary, but the point is that the reality of daily life does not always match the priorities that we seek for ourselves. A vast amount of our time, money, and attention goes to things that are further down on our priority list. The highest priorities sometimes get whatever is left over of our time and other resources.

What would need to change in order for us to reorder our priorities? How can we truly put first things first? What is one thing that you can do today to take a step in the right direction?

Blessings,
Pastor Paul Cook