Priorities

So, this is my first blog post in a little over three months. I’m pretty sure that I don’t have scores of adoring fans out there in cyberspace waiting with baited breath for my next brilliant utterance, but I started this blog with the intention of posting every week for my own exercise, for the habit of forcing myself to write every week, with the hopes that someone would read it, enjoy it, and maybe even glean something from it.

The first few weeks I missed because I got a full-time job and was still in the middle of a heavy semester of grad school. After the semester ended, I needed a break on Sundays, when I normally write these posts. After I had rested, I was too busy with friends inviting me to do things. Long story short: I always had excuses. Which got me thinking about priorities.

When we really value something, we make it a priority. I like sports, so I make sure to plan TV watching time around the sporting events that I want to watch. I value literature, so I make time to read whenever I can. I also value money--which may not be obvious by my chosen profession--so I make sure to check my accounts every day (to be sure no one is taking my money) and I monitor my credit regularly (I don’t think that my valuing of money is excessive, just safe). So, if I really value my blog and my writing and the thought that goes into it, I need to make it a priority and write every week. So, all of you readers out there in cyberspace have my word that I will make this blog a priority from now on.

Now, I want to talk about making God a priority. Jesus taught that the greatest commandment was to love God with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength (Matthew 22:35-38). In my mind if you love someone, you make that person a priority. For example, if I love someone, I won’t tell them that I’ll see if I have time to spend with them after I get all my errands done, and after I play videogames for a while, and after I watch this movie, and after I read some from this really great book that I just picked up. I will make the time with the person I love first, and if I have time for anything else, I’ll squeeze in time for those other things too (assuming that I could do important errands with the person I love).

So, time for God shouldn’t just be when we have some extra time some odd Sunday to get to church. We should put Him first. That doesn’t mean that we have to be monks and nuns to make God happy with the time we are giving Him, just like the person you love should understand that you have to go to work and that you have other interests and hobbies that you want to pursue. We just need to make sure that He is not an afterthought.

After all, His work and glory is to bring to pass our immortality and eternal life (Moses 1:39). Of all the things He could be doing with His time, we are His priority. This is how He shows His love for us, His children. It is only fitting that we should reciprocate that love.