Priorities

At the monthly men’s breakfast, the topic presented concerned priorities, which got me thinking – musing!  I’m going to lay out what I think should be our top six priorities and their order.  The challenge is that priorities don’t always entail a proportionate amount of time compared to their importance.  Thus time and talk with God is almost always less, much less, than the time needed and given to children or work.  So, rather than setting priorities based on time, we need determine them based on God’s Word.

In our first days, our parents set our priorties about home, school, church, teachers, and even our own thinking.  Over time, priorities got tweaked, modified, shuffled, and even redone as forces outside of us pushed and pulled on our lives and life truths were learned.  Yet today, priorities matter and sometimes need re-evaluated.  Priorities are part of life – we all have them – so what are they and are they right?

It would seem obvious that the chief priority for all people, especially Christians, must be God.  [Even the non-believer finds some form of a god thing to worship or cry to.]  While God should be our number one priority, for most of us that is mostly said and not often lived out.  He should get daily devotional time, acknowledgement at meals, noted when traveling, consideration in decisions, thought when looking into the faces of a crowd, and petitioned when dealing with children.  In fact, in everything we do He should be considered.  Yes, God should be our highest priority and in time, He will be!

And what is second?  If married, it is our spouse for in that union, created and blessed by God, God is seen and the world impacted.  Furthermore, marriage is an act of God who makes the two one and the marriage of a man and a woman shows Jesus and His church.  So, in marriage, God is proclaimed and Jesus promoted.  That makes marriage very important!  [If not married, then the parents of a woman should be in this spot as she has not been given away.  If a male, #2 should be left blank.]

The third priority is children and family.  If man aspires to be a church elder or pastor, his children and home must be in line.  Also, the family is the moral and spiritual training ground for the next generation and the family is the moral fabric of a society. Thus the family is a very high priority!  [Family here includes children and extended family.  Even without children, it is the #3 priority.]

The fourth priority is church.  Yes, above work, play, government, and money.  Church is the body of Christ – His bride – His workmanship.  If He puts that much into the church, how do we do less?  I even put this one very close to #3 – even tightly to #3 – based in part on the statement by Jesus about His mother and brothers to His followers that they were His family over physical family (Matthew 12:46-50).  Janet and I made church a very strong #4 in rearing our kids – strong!  And I note that all five still make church a significant priority in their lives.  I think too often most parents put a rather large gap between family and church, or so it seems, so that to the children the church feels insignificant. That is not a good thing.

I think that priority number five is government.  Government is God’s creation and He rules over it.  God uses government in a host of ways in our lives so we are amiss to not give it a significant priority.  The simple fact that we pay so much attention to it and are so strongly opinionated about it declares its importance.  And yes, I put the church ahead of government, work, play, health, retirement, and many other “priorities.”

I have my employment or work as number six.  Again, important – for it is of God!  We see God working hard for six days, giving Adam work to do, and sending out His people with tasks to accomplish.  For many, this priority takes the great bulk of the waking hours but not as important as God, family, or church.

All other issues need to fall below these six in priority.  That is, your vacation, your scuba club, your cars, your kitchen, your jewelry, your favorite team, your retirement fund, etc. are all lesser priorities.

Priorities matter – they matter a bunch!  So, what are yours?  What would others say your priorities are?  What does God know your priorities are?