Where are your priorities? Think about it for a second. Grab a piece of paper and a pen and jot them down 1-10. Obviously for most people or Christians at least they would probably put God as #1. That's who our first priority should be right? Then most people would probably put their family. Under that might be work, sports, exercising, some sort of hobby you enjoy doing, or even school. Now that you have them written down in front of you I want you to stop and examine it. Are you looking at it and really examining it? Now I want you to think about your life and really consider whether or not these are your priorities. It's easy to write them down, its even easy to talk about them, but are we living them?
We are getting ready to head into our revival week next week at church and our minister has really been preaching about where we put God and church in our life. And I pray that our congregation has been really listening and taking to heart what he has been saying. I have definitely gotten several things out of it. I wonder though if people really realize the priorities in their head aren't usually the priorities in their life.
Earlier I said it was the obvious answer that Christians would put God as their #1 priority. God tells us he should be our #1. He tells us we should love him and put him above all things. This was a hard concept for me for a REALLY long time. I mean until about a year ago, I didn't get this concept. I am a very family oriented person and it was really hard for me to imagine being able to love anyone more than I love my husband, or my children, or my parents, or my nieces and nephew. I just couldn't comprehend it. Yet, God commands us to love him first.
Mark 12:30 - And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your power; this is the first commandment.
We are commanded to love God with EVERYTHING before anything else.
Does your life reflect that?
Growing up in my family there were very few things that came before sports. My dad taught us unless we were dying, we went to every practice and every game and we gave 100%. The only thing I can think of that would have taken priority over sports is God. Every time the doors were open at church my family was there. Every time there was something going on at church whether it was a youth event or a revival or a potluck we were there. No questions asked. And as important as sports were to our family, it was never questioned that God was of higher importance. I love my Daddy, I am and always have been a Daddy's girl. And I can tell you that you can't get much closer to a perfect God fearing and loving man than my Daddy. You will never hear anyone say anything bad about him. You will never hear him say anything bad about anyone else. He is the most honest and faithful man. As I say that you should know that my Daddy was in a career for 13 years where he could not go to church on Sunday mornings because as a professional football player he was in team meetings and getting ready for games. He always made sure that in some way or another he had his time with God before he focused on football. And outside of that we were always involved in church activities. My Dad made sure we knew God was to be our first priority and after that was up to us.
Does your life revolve around God and let other things sprinkle in? Or does your life revolve around other things and let God sprinkle in? Is God a necessity or a convenience?
I will tell you what I have seen over the last 10 years of working with churches and youth groups. A lot of Christians lives revolve around other things and let God sprinkle in. We get very busy with a lot of different things. Sports, work, kids programs, dance, after school activities and we feel committed to those things. We allow all of these other things to take priority over God whether its missing church for a game or a practice, missing an important church event because of a meeting or other obligation and we find time for God when we don't have all these other things going on.
What message are we sending our children?
What are we telling our children when we skip church because we stayed out at an event too late Saturday night and don't want to get up?
What are we telling our children when we blow off a potluck or a revival because we have too many practices?
What are we telling our children when we don't go to services on a Sunday or Wednesday night because it will stress us out getting home so late on a school night?
What are we telling our children when we show up for worship service, but not for Sunday school class?
What are we telling our children when we find time for everything BUT God?
We are telling them it's ok to make God a convenience. We are saying that it's up to us and our schedule, not God and his. Parents, we have got to realize we are responsible for our children's souls. We are responsible for what they are learning now so that they take it into adulthood with them and pass it on to our grandchildren and our great- grandchildren. We are laying the foundation now in our children to become strong Christian men and women. And the only way that we can teach them that is by showing them that God is the priority in our life. We need to begin to make changes in our life to make sure that God is the center and we make time for everything else. We need to make sure our children know what is important and that we make sure they know God comes above ALL else.
Decide now that you want to make God the center of your family and if you have time for those other things then GREAT! Right now our children only have a couple of things that they are involved in and so far we haven't had to make that decision of this or that, but when the day comes we have already decided our children will know that God comes first. Their coaches will know that God comes first. Their dance teachers, extra curricular activity supervisors and anyone else that does things with our kids will know that God comes first. And if that means missing a practice, a game or whatever in the end my children's relationship with God and their salvation is WAY more important than any skill or trophy they will get here on earth. Start living by the priority list in your head and not the one in your datebook.
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