Our lives clearly state our priorities...
Examine someone's schedule and you know what they care about...
ouch.
A minute of self examination (kayce clark go ahead and be proud) leads me to scream at this last statement. NO NO NO... Don't judge my priorities by my time, that's not what I really care about.
You know of my love for self-discipline. I crave discipline and work diligently for it. Discipline in my eating habits, exercise, time with God, in my mind, in the cleanliness of my home, in self sacrificing... etc. To me saying that I live a disciplined life would say that my priorities in my heart are clearly priorities in my schedule, but the moment of self-examination tells me otherwise.
If you have the time, do this self examination exercise with me real quick. If you don't, then think about it for a minute. Grab a piece of paper and a pen. Go ahead and make seven columns for the seven days, then make rows for the hours of the day. Start the hours at the typical hour you wake up and you can stop it at the typical time you go to bed. For me I start at 5 a.m. (not that I wake up everyday at 5 a.m. but at least one day a week I do) and I end my day at 11pm (I hardly ever go to bed later than 11). Then account each hour of your day. If you don't have time to do this now, or don't feel like doing all seven days now, do one day. Here is an example of Wednesday for me. (Wednesday was an extreme busy day for me this week, but the day that triggered this blog post).
5 a.m- 6 a.m.- Wake up, Worship, prayer, bible study.. begin coffee and breakfast
6a.m- 7a.m - Getting ready (brush teeth, hair, makeup, dressed etc.) journal for a few minutes, facebook, emails etc.
7:15-9 a.m- coach summer workouts
9-11 a.m- coach middle school volleyball camp
11-11:45 a.m- lunch at subway with boss
11:45-2p-coach elementary school volleyball camp
2p-3p- Get home from camp, rest a few minutes, get prepared for workout
3p-4p- 60 minute run
4p-5p- shower, get dressed, hair, make up etc.
5:15-6:15p- dinner with friends
6:30p-9p- at church
9p-10p- prepare for bed, fbook, emails, twitter, etc... get in bed
This is my whole day on Wednesday. It didn't involve much interaction outside of what was built into the schedule in other words i didn't have a lot of phone calls or texts that day. And it was an abnormally busy work day for the summer for me.
As this past week went on (an extremely busy week for me) I thought about priorities. Does the way my time is spent reflect my priorities? In a 17 hour day the Lord was given a solid 45 minutes. I'm not saying I didn't pray outside of that 45 mintues or think about Him, but He was given 45 minutes of my undivided attention. Work must be a priority in our lives, I'm a firm believer in hard work, but how often do I invite God into my work? Is He acknowledged and relied upon? Is He given my full availability to stop and listen if He speaks or do as the Holy Spirit guides... or does God get 45 minutes of undivided attention only to be put on a shelf for the other 16 hours and 15 minutes?
What profits if I give God 45 minutes of undivided attention and then never allow Him to move me to compassion for others throughout the day, or allow Him to use me to speak to someone, witness, love, minister, pray for etc.
What really is my true priority? I know my heart priorities. I know the things I care deeply about. I know the person I want to be. Does my schedule reflect those priorities?
I'm contemplating priorities this week. What are my true priorities? What are the things I consider priorities and what do I give priority to? Is there a difference? How can I fix that or Can I fix it?
Just some thoughts...
Be Blessed,
J. Tate
No comments:
Post a Comment