FAMILY
How should I prioritize my responsibilities with work, service and family?
God's Response:
Standing near the cross were Jesus' mother, and His mother's sister, Mary (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw His mother standing there beside the disciple He loved, He said to her, "Dear woman, here is your son." And He said to this disciple, "Here is your mother." And from then on this disciple took her into his home.
John 19:25-27
Those who won't care for their relatives, especially those in their own household, have denied the true faith.
1 Timothy 5:8
Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from Him
Psalm 127:3
Our Takeaway:
Even when Jesus was dying on the cross, He was concerned about His family. He delegated the responsibility for caring for His mother, Mary, to John.
Your family members are gifts from God, and He wants you to value and care for them. Neither Christian work nor key responsibilities in any other job or position excuse you from caring for your family. What can you do today to show your love to your family?
God Challenge:
Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.
Isaiah 58:7-8
Big T's Thought To Ponder:
How should I prioritize my responsibilities with work, service and family? The key word here is prioritize, but there is also a huge missing component in the authors criteria of priorities!
Our first fruits, our very best, our greatest commitment above all others, must be given to God! Can you imaging what life would be like if we were to abandon the Loving Savior of the world - just look around! God wants the first portion of our time. He wants us to prioritize our time around Him and in such a way that He is at the top of our agendas - our priority #1.
Let's start by taking our Sunday's out of the equation for just a minute. Other then Sunday when are we spending time alone with God? How are we spending time with God Monday -Saturday? These should be a few of the priorities that we are intentional about everyday in order to grow towards spiritual maturity:
- Quite time... Alone time between just you and your Divine Creator, Jesus Christ (Luke 9:23)
- Study time... Learning about Him; learning of His instruction through His Word
- Prayer time... Take some time to thank Him and share your heart with Him (Mark 1:35)
- Meditation time... Take time to internalize and listen to to God speak to you (Proverbs 8:34)
- Memorization time... Calling His Truth and Promises to memory (Psalm 119:9-11)
- Action time... Take time to put legs and feet to what the Lord shares with you (Galatians 5:13-14)
#1 priority is God; list everywhere on your timeline where you are going to practise the things listed above; make time for Him and give Him your best. #2 priority is your wife or husband; fill in every spot on your calendar where you are going to make time for spending quality time with the mate in which you have been blessed. #3 priority is your children; they desire alone time with us, it is their greatest joy to have our time, time that is allowed specifically for them. #4 priority is work; everywhere you have space left for after you have been intentional about giving your time to priorities 1-3, should be used to prioritize spending time working and utilizing the spiritual gifts which we have been given.
The first time I laid out my time schedule with this mindset, I thought, "this is never going to fly". The second thing I thought was, this is completely opposite of what is acceptable and right by any worldly standard.
Acts 17:11
In the world we have been conditioned to wake up; rush to work; work as long and hard as humanly possible to make the greenbacks sufficient to pay the bills and live the most successful and extravagant life style possible. If we have any time or energy leftover when we get home, we pull up a couch, grab and 10 minute gourmet meal; turn on the television and spend some quality time with our favorite American idols, who done it on CSI or one of those bad housewives. Before you realize it, Saturday rolls around and we're beat down from our exhaustive work week and it's time to just relax and catch our breath, right? Wrong!
We haven't gotten to a our list-of-lists: wanna-do-list, honey-do-list and gotta-do-list. Saturday was just a vapor, it's now Sunday morning and it's time to squeeze in a Sunday church service in order that we may remain in good standings with God and continue to hold onto our spiritual status of - Christians...
God doesn't want to be squeezed into your already busy schedule, He wants to be made part of your busyness! The biggest part! Take time to make time for Him before you do anything else, because if you don't you're just like me - you won't! Not because we don't want to, we just get too busy to take-the-time to make-the-time...
James 4:13-14
Priority and balance are the key factors in making this work. Believe me, He will allow it to work! Invest your time and service in Him first; then in your marriage; then with your children and last but not least, in your work - And then leave all the consequences up to our Divine Creator... You will be amazed by the life altering impact that spending your time in this manner will have on your life.
Psalm 68:19
He is our greatest priority, make Him part of your busyness!
