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First Things First Tim Smelser
And He said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' "This is the great and foremost commandment. "The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40) As school and fall activities begin for our children, families must take the time to coordinate their schedules. Calendars, planners and PDAs all help us keep everyone on track and prevent any obligations from falling through the cracks. In the past, hourly scheduling books were used mainly by those in business who would see multiple clients in the span of a day. Now, many families are using similar tools to maintain control of their activities. I believe that our culture of over commitment is a relatively new one. In the 1970s and 1980s, families were busy. Johnny had little league, and Suzy had piano lessons. Families still became busier as the children moved into adolescence, but the chaos did not begin during the primary grades. While allowing for individual family differences, conversations with experienced parents support this suggestion. Today, children as young as pre-school age are committed to sports, art, and or music classes. Families are coordinating multiple obligations for several children, creating a schedule that requires an administrative assistant (usually MOM!) to manage. What is the point? In this day and age of highly scheduled daily living, have we “penciled in” time for God? I’m sure that on your family’s master schedule you have included our regularly scheduled times of worship. But have you also scheduled in time to prepare for Bible classes? Have you scheduled in time to read your Bible? Have you scheduled in time to pray? I used the term “penciled in,” because that suggests that the appointment is subject to change if something more important comes up. Are we guilty of this disrespectful attitude toward our Creator? In his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey espouses the habit of putting “First Things First.” As Christians, I’m sure we would at least give lip service to the idea of putting God first in our lives, then family, then work. But is that the reality of our personal situations? Do we, as God’s people, personally put time for developing our relationship to God ahead of family, work, and even recreation? And where do we place time to spend in service to others? What can we do to put God first in our daily lives? First we must honestly evaluate how we are spending our time personally and as a family. Where is time for God? Thinking about the past week, have we prayed to God daily? Have we read our Bibles daily? Have we had a daily devotional with our children? Have our children gone to Bible class unprepared? Have we? Radical change may be needed! Life organizational experts tell us that we will be more effective if we begin each day by planning. God tells us we will be more effective if we begin each day in prayer. “My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up” (Psalm 5:3). God tells us to prepare ourselves by studying His word. “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long” ( Psalm 119:97). “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth” ( 2 Tim. 2:15). God tells us to make teaching His word to our children a part of our daily lives. “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates” (Deut. 6:6-9). God tells us to care for others. “Forget not to show love unto strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb. 13:2). “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27) I challenge us to look at our time commitments, and evaluate whether we are writing our daily appointments with God on our calendars in ink, or whether we are letting spiritual attentions get pushed aside by the frivolous distractions of the world.
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