Working Smart, Living FaithfullySample

Day 4: Priority Means "First"

When I was in elementary school, I loved to play house with my friend across the street. We even had plastic vegetables held together by velcro so you could cut them with a toy knife! Every day, when I came home from school, I would race inside, practically tearing off my school clothes so I could get changed and go outside to play. Much to my chagrin at the time, my mom would stop me before I reached the door and remind me to do my homework first.

At the time, I figured she did this because playing outside with the neighbor was a convenient incentive to make me do my homework. Later on, I realized a different side of it that makes me thankful. This practice as a child taught me to do the important things first, even if they weren’t the most appealing at the time. Prioritizing like this is a great way to make sure we complete our crucial tasks and actually enjoy the free time after, knowing we did what must be done.

If you were to start listing your priorities, what would be at the top of your list? Work? Family? School? Workouts? Sleep? Now, I ask—what should beat the top? If you are a Christian spending time on the Bible app, you probably know the answer is God and your relationship with Him.

Let’s back up for a minute. Taking my mom’s lesson on when to do priority things, do Bible time and prayer time count? Are those things we should do first? There’s no deadline for these, so it’s tempting to say no. I fall into this trap constantly.

Normally, when you prioritize something this way and get it done first, you feel good because it’s done, and you don’t have to feel guilty about not having done it. When it comes to prioritizing God-time, you have not only this benefit but also the benefit of filling your mind with truth before any clutter.

Jesus also said the greatest commandments are to love God and to love our neighbors. This is our top priority as we go about our days. Everything we do should flow from this mindset. But for this to work, we have to establish the mindset first.

Every morning we put on some sort of lens that changes how we view the world. Try starting with the Bible-prayer lens by putting God-time first. You won’t believe your eyes.