R Ur Priorities in Order
(Third in the Back to School Series)
I challenge you to take out a piece of paper and write down everything you did yesterday and today? Go ahead. Do it.
In Exodus 20:3 God commands us; “You shall have no other god before Me.” (NKJV) Most of us who attend church probably say, “I don’t worship any other God. I know Buddha isn’t God and Muhammad isn’t God.” But let us go further. Was God anywhere on your list? Did you acknowledge Him at anytime besides saying the little rote prayers “God is good, God is great” and the “Now I lay me down to sleep” you learned as child? Do you give God your time everyday? Or do you allow obligations such as homework, jobs, chores, family, sports, friends, social media, shopping, video games, or anything else take the place of your time with God? Do these get in the way of you attending church regularly?
If I asked you to describe yourself, what are the first words that come to your mind? Go ahead what is the very first word that comes to mind? Is it Christian? Or Child of God? If not, maybe, it is time to examine where God’s place is in your life. Before you are a student, an athlete, a singer, an artist, etc., if you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you should be identifying yourself, first and foremost, as a Christian or a Child of God.
A few years ago, our son read Tim Tebow’s book “Through My Eyes”(I highly recommend this book for all young people) and it really struck a cord with him. One day, during the time he was reading the book, he came out and wrote something from this book on the black board wall we have in our kitchen:
R UR Priorities in Order
- Faith
- Family
- Academics
- Sports, etc.
Then he said, “We are never taking this down, ok, Mom?” And we never have. It is still there today. (Number four can actually be anything, but because our family is full of young men, sports works for our family.)
Something changed in our house that day. Although, Pastor Dany and I had taught our kids this over and over, once it was on the board, it took on a deeper meaning in our home. We all started looking at that list before we decided if we were going to do something or not. Instead of us making decisions or telling the boys, “Yes, you can” or, “No, you can’t,” we would just point to the board and say make your decision.
Sometimes there were hard decisions. One such decision came about because of the fact that our boys did play sports. Do you see where sports are on the list? And where is Faith? Faith means not only prayer time and devotion time, but also, church and “not forsaking the gathering of the saints.” So this meant major decisions when it came to what sports and sports teams they would play. That was not easy, but the boys put God first and God made a way!
Sometimes it meant, if there was a family emergency or celebration they had to put sports on the back burner. That can be a difficult struggle. There was a time we had to go home (to Ohio) for an important family celebration, and the boys also had an important game. They wanted to go to the celebration, but they felt such a heavy obligation to their team. So we went to the board, we put God first and asked him to help us keep our priorities straight and then we let the boys make their decision. They looked at the board, family was above sports, and so the decision was right there in front of their face. Did it make it easy to tell their team? No! Did the team still play their game? Yes! Did they make the right decision? Yes! Was the family member blessed? Yes! Were the boys blessed? Yes!
If we don’t keep God as our first priority, we make it easy for Satan to mess with all areas of our lives. If we keep our priorities in order, we make it harder for Satan to cause struggles and very easy for God to move in our lives.
When life gets hectic and nothing seems to be going right, those words on our board serve as a reminder to slow down pray and prioritize.
As students, you have so many things going on and you are taking so many different classes, that in order to be successful you have to learn to prioritize. When you make God your first priority, and listen to what he tells you to do first; things will fall into place. There have been so many times that I just did not think I could get everything done or achieve the level I wanted on a project, but when I slow down, put God first, pray and ask for his guidance, it all works out.
This week, if you want to be entered in the drawing you need to email, text, or give me a written list of your priorities. I don’t want you to stop there. Print them out, and post them somewhere you will see them everyday. Place it on the mirror in your room. Place it on the inside of the door of your locker at school. Everyday when you look at your list, if you haven’t given God first place; stop, spend some time with him, pray, read God’s Word, and get your priorities in order