Living According to My Priorities

In order to fulfill my resolution to post once a week, this is going to be a short one. We'll save the longer one about our recent Lopez trip for a less crazy week {pretty please don't squelch my dream that next week will be calmer than this one}.

I subscribe to the Proverbs 31 Ministries daily emails, and it's amazing how often the message is exactly what I need to hear. "Who's Setting Your Priorities?" by Glynnis Whitwer was no exception. It was about how technology, like cell phones, email, social media, etc, can not only be distracting, but can hijack one's priorities for the day.

Glynnis Whitwer writes,

"A typical day starts with checking some sort of communication device to see who might have emailed, posted or texted. Then, before we begin to handle what’s most important to us, our day begins by responding to what’s most important to others. 

Without a concerted effort to stop this pull, we are drawn into the day’s rushing current like a tiny raft on a whitewater river. And rather than being proactive, our days are spent in reactive mode...

...After years of shortchanging myself and my family, and often dishonoring God with disobedience, I realized I had things upside down! Things that mattered least replaced things that mattered most in my schedule. And work that would make the greatest impact on my life often fell to the bottom of my lists, then transferred to the next list until I either completed it with a fraction of my ability or abandoned it entirely."

Let's read that last bit again: "And work that would make the greatest impact on my life often fell to the bottom of my lists, then transferred to the next list until I either completed it with a fraction of my ability or abandoned it entirely." 

Wow. Do I want to be spending most of my time on the things that I don't actually really care about? Of course not. But how often is this the reality of my life? Scrolling endlessly through my Facebook newsfeed. Following the rabbit trail of blogs and articles (even really good ones!). I look up and an hour has gone by. Who is setting my priorities anyway?

The answer should be me.

One of the reflection questions from "Who's Setting Your Priorities?" reads: What priorities in your life do you wish you invested more of your time into?

My answer is simpler than I would think:

I wish I would invest my time in blogging, writing, playing with Mr. D, making good food for us, keeping the house tidy and welcoming. I want to have more time for the people in my life, and be rooted in a strong relationship with God.

Faith.            Family.             Home.               People.             Words.

These are my priorities. It's time to put them on the top of my list.