Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Priorities and a humble heart

If someone watched you in your every day life for a week and came to a conclusion about your priorities based on your week, would the things they determined to be your priorities actually be the things that you claim to prioritize?

I'm not sure that mine always would.

Part of my problem might be that I'm not as clear with myself as I'd  like to be on what my priorities are, which makes follow thorough a little difficult.

This week I feel convicted about my number one priority, this week my priority is to teach my girls the amazing truths about Jesus.  I want them to be reminded of how much they are loved and what an Awesome God we serve.

Last week as I thought about and planned for Holy Week I decided I would read the Book of Mark aloud to the girls.  Things like that always sound really good in the planning phase.  My plan also includes a sunny morning, birds chirping, chipper kids and a clock that moves very slowly.  But then the reality of Monday morning happens and no matter how prepared we are we're always just a few steps behind.  

Yesterday morning was no different.  It was 8:08, we needed to leave for school in 17 minutes, breakfast was waiting to be cleared and nobody seemed in the mood for reading the Bible.  Forget it, I thought, we don't really have time for this.  I felt tension.  I'd already committed to this reading and what would my choice to clean up the kitchen say about my priorities?
I knew what it said.
The dishes could wait.
I cleared an open spot and called the girls to the island.  Where they promptly argued over who would sit where and accused one another of being annoying.  I began my reading, over Lucy's protests and yells that "Eleanor can sit nowhere, never!! nowhere!  never!!".  The names John and Baptist and Jesus caught her attention and she quieted.  Everyone settled a bit and I read just for a minute or so.    After the reading we talked about John the Baptist's humility and what humility looks like in our own lives.  The girls had nice text book responses.  A few moments later Eleanor, to the very best of my memory said (and here is where I wish I walked around with a tape-record, because honestly you just never know when you'll want to capture something forever)

I think an example of being humble is sharing your gifts with others even when you're not the best.  You know like when you just know that you have a gift but there are lots of other people who do that thing better than you.  Being humble is knowing that no one will think you're the best but still sharing your gift because that's why God gave you that gift, to share it.

And I almost missed that because I wanted to load the dishwasher.  Priorities.



Today Lucy and I had a priority and that was to make Easter cupcakes.  Teddy also has priorities, one is to stay as close as possible to Lucy whenever she has something tasty to eat.




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