Priorities: Ours or His?
Today starts a new day of living a balanced life. Over this past weekend God began to deal with me about my priorities. Showing me my priorities that I give him and what my priorities should be.
If you have been following me on Facebook or Twitter, you know the current status and prayers needed for a wonderful MOPS speaker Joanne Heim. She is an incredible woman that had a heart attack, which may have been due to an aneurysm, that prompted me and 6 of my dearest friends to get a heart screening at Vanderbilt Medical Center (wish I took pictures…ugh!). The screening ended up being a cholesterol and glucose check.
What were the results of my test? Let’s just say…it was eye opening.
- Blood Pressure: 129/78 Results – PreHypertension
- Cholesterol: 200 Results – Total Cholesterol needs to be less than 200. I am right there.
- HDL: 73 Results – Happy that I have “good cholesterol”! Needs to be greater than 50.
- LDL: 104 Results – Over the Ideal Level. Needs to be less than 100.
- Glucose: 88 Results – Ideal less than 100. WooHoo!!
Now for the last number of the test…Body Mass Index!! I am a half a point away from the obese column!!
That was Friday.
Saturday night we had our Saturday school class. We had a couple in our church discuss budgeting. Jose and I really had not done a budget for the last few years. We were just in survival mode. So Sunday evening we did one. Not sure if you heard me screaming from where you are reading this, but it’s scary. I like budgets. I just don’t like them for me. So now I am on an allowance and am going to try really hard to stick with it. I know we can do because it’s ours and our kid’s futures at stake.
The results of my health and finances have made me see what I give God as my priorities. It brought me to tears.
God only gives us one body and one bank account and he wants to be first priority in both of them!
Then I took some time in prayer and made this list.
A list of my priorities:
- God
- Husband
- Kids
- Finances
- Church
- Ministry
Now I know I can’t do any of these if I don’t take care of my body either.
I then created a To-Do list to keep my priorities in check:
- That I meet with God every morning.
- Exercise 4-5 days a week.
- Eat right. Over the weekend I menu planned a heart-healthy diet from EatingWell.com.
- Keep my house and finances in check
This is what I am excited about, that in my morning times with God, I also take my “wonderful new calendar” and write out what his priorities for me are that day. Not what I want but what he wants.
This is where the fun begins. This is where God began to show me this weekend that somehow along the way I forgot to ask what he wanted. I forgot to take him along this journey he has me on. Now don’t get super-spiritual on me. I’m just being honest! That sometimes along the way our priorities become just that-ours not his.
I get excited because this is so freeing for me. He gets to decide not only #1-5 of my priorities but also #6. He gets to tell me what to write about or who to reach out to that day with encouragement. He begins to order my steps of “the right time and place” encounters. There are no limits what God will continue to do. (Last minute note: Realize that your #6 may not come around till your numbers #1-5 are in order.)
If you find yourself questioning your priorities, my encouragement to you is begin to ask God what He sees are the priorities you give him and where he wants them to be. Let him do the same as he did for me and free you from a life of our own priorities and fill them with a life of his.
What priority changes have you made so far in 2011?
