Are You Winning or Losing?

Author: Pastor Kyle Torrence

Matthew 6:33— But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

There is always something competing for your time. Are you winning or losing?

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I had a list of a hundred things to do, and all of them should have been done a hundred days ago. My mind was on my unfinished tasks. My phone was a portal to the never-ending communication with a world that would not let me break free. I was exhausted, to say the least. Being a full-time dad, husband, and pastor left an unending need to balance my duties.

The dinner table is usually a place where we as a family come together to unplug and talk about our day as a family. It’s a time that I have come to enjoy. I remember one night as a family sitting around the dinner table. I was on my phone trying to send a few more texts and respond to a few emails when I heard a little voice in the background. At first, it was drowned out by the kitchen noise, and then I felt a hand reach out and touch my arm, and suddenly I snapped back to reality.

My wife had broken through the noise.

She asked if I had heard my daughter; bothered by the abrupt interruption, I replied, “No. Just give me a second to finish this text.” I was frustrated. How could they not see that I was in the middle of trying to get someone some info they needed?

Then my daughter spoke with a little quiver. She said, “I need you to hear about my hard day. Someone was mean to me on the playground and said I wasn’t pretty.” My daughter was fighting back the tears.

What she said crushed me!

She knew the table was a safe place to share and talk about her day; had I not let my phone compete for her time, I would have seen my kindergartener’s heartbreak. I got up from my seat and put my phone on the counter. I scooped her up, and she poured her heart out.

My daughter was looking to me for comfort. The same way that we should run to our heavenly Father! We are safe at His table. However, distractions will always be around us, and we must consciously remove them once we identify what is holding our attention away from God.

That’s why phones are no longer allowed at the table since that moment with my daughter.

Our interactions with our kids help lead them to the feet of the Father. My prayer is that my girls seek God’s comfort and peace daily, free from the distractions of this world—and I set that standard in my home.

Sometimes we must break down the verse in Matthew 6—seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

Within my own life, I was out of balance and distracted. In my circle of influence, my daughter needed my attention and my words of affirmation.

As far around the world as one can reach, my world, at the moment, was sitting around my table, and I was too distracted to notice. Thank you, God, for showing me how to seek you first in all I do! Amen!

Reflection

What distractions are keeping you from meeting God at the table?