Protecting Your Priorities in the Busyness of Life
I have grown up with a sister who has spent her life fighting cancer and now a mother who also has the same battle. From a young age, I experienced how fleeting this thing called life actually is and there is still much growing up in that lesson to be done. I praise the Lord that my sister is now in remission! I have learned that those who know how to die, can live fully!
Life is full of jagged edges, reminding us that we are bleeding mortars. My sister was born dying, but then again, I guess we all are. Although we may not share the same scars, there is one thing we all have in common, we will live and we will die.
There is a beginning and an end to this thing called life.
Every ripple crescendos and crashes into the shore. We are born and then we break. Life blinks. We were not created to live for self… We were made for more.
Her fight (my sister) unleashed a fight within my soul… A fight to make this life count!
This fight is echoed in the poem written by C.T. Studd, “There is only one life twill soon be past, only what is done for Christ will last.”
“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
How can we make this life count?
How can we be women of grit and grace who make an impact?
We must be women who live with reckless abandonment towards God-honoring priorities.
Exactly what is a priority? The Webster dictionary says, “a thing that is regarded as more important than another.”
Or, to ask a question to help us understand, “What are the responsibilities in my life that only I can do?” For instance, I am the only one who can be a mother to my children and a wife to my husband.
So, I encourage you to name your top three priorities.
My top three priorities are: 1.) Husband 2.) Children 3.) Health
Notice that I listed my husband before my children. If I do not make my husband my first priority, than I am not doing a good job at loving my children. Our children will grow into adults and hopefully move out of the house (before their 30’s) BUT my husband is with me forever, and therefore, it is important that I invest in this relationship.
How do we know if we are living by our priorities?
1. Fold a piece of paper in half.
2. On one side, write out your top three priorities. For example, my first priority is my relationship with my husband and then my children and then my health. You may be thinking that I should have listed “My Faith” but to me that is a given. I do not like to put God first because in my eyes, He is the center of it all.
3. On the opposite side of the paper, write out your weekly and daily activities. How you spend your time. Don’t be shy… Put it all down! No one is going to see this but you. Try to record every second of your day on this piece of paper.
4. Now, cross out everything that does not serve your top three priorities. If one of your priorities is your family, don’t you dare cross off time for yourself (exercise, a bubble bath, reading a book) because when you are taking care of yourself, you are able to better serve those top three priorities.
5. Ask God to give you wisdom on how to better live out your priorities. Is there something you could do more often? Is there something you could limit to help serve your priorities?
I hope this exercise will prove to be encouraging for you, as you seek to live out a #gritandgracelife!
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#gritandgracelife
