Living Your Priorities
Mickey Mangun spoke at our church on Sunday. She kicked off the 1st leg of a new sermon series entitled The Family Trip. Some of the things she spoke about didn’t apply to me because I don’t have children, but there was one thought that permanently attached itself to my brain.
It was about “living” your priorities — a principle that’s easy to understand, yet difficult to implement. Think about it. We all have a mental list of the top priorities in our lives. We can easily spout off those priorities without a second thought: God, family, ministry, work. The problem is that the mental list seldom matches up with the way we live in the real world.
Let’s be honest. Does God really get top billing in your life? How much time do you spend with Him during the course of a day compared with your job, hobbies, friends, and family? Maybe you’re better than me, but I have to admit that the bulk of my time isn’t spent where it probably should be.
It’s easy to hide behind the excuses. I’m too busy. I have to work. I have responsibilities. Work gets done first, and then I need some “play” time. Oh yes, I also need to write my blog, balance the checkbook, clean house….the list goes on and on. The harsh reality, though, is that this speaks volumes about the real priorities in my life.
Mickey suggested that we aren’t too busy. We do what we want. If we don’t do something, it’s because it wasn’t important enough at the time. It wasn’t a priority.
The way I use my time reveals my true priorities in life. If I don’t spend time with God, He’s not my priority. If I’m too exhausted to spend quality time with my spouse at the end of the day, he’s not my priority. Saying something is a priority doesn’t make it so. It’s not enough to say it, you have to live it.
It’s not easy. I may not be able to do it every day, but I feel compelled to stop paying lip service to my priorities and start living them. How about you? Are you up to the challenge?
