Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Priorities

At the start of this year, our pastor talked about looking back and considering our priorities, and about pressing on with confidence (Philippians 3:1-16). As I thought back over the past year, I realized I had learned some things about my priorities. My dad always told me to make sure I had my priorities right: Keep God at the top, and everything else will fall in place. His priorities were very clear, and he stuck to them.

For myself, one thing I have stopped doing recently is using the word “busy”. It dawned on me one day that somehow I manage to find time to check text messages, to go on Facebook and Pinterest, and to watch my favourite television show. I told myself that if I can find the time to do those things in my “busy” days, then I can make a priority of finding the time to pray and to read God’s word. In doing so, I have experienced God’s presence in new and amazing ways in all areas of my life. I have experienced a contentment, a sense that I am exactly where I am supposed to be, even during the craziest moments and the most exhausting days.


As for pressing on with confidence, my goals are as follows: Pray more. Help more. Love more. Encourage more. Be more and do more, not in the sense of making my calendar super-full, but in the sense that I want to do the things that God wants me to do, and live the life that he wants me to live wherever I am and whatever I am doing: at church, at work, at home, at the community centre, at Tim Horton’s, at LCS, at the daycare, and the list could go on.


Christian education continues to be a strong priority. I see how being educated in Christian Schools has formed my own faith. I see the importance of having our children learn in a Christ-centred environment. I love hearing and seeing our children’s faith and learning grow and blossom through stories, songs and lessons they have learned at school. These moments are good reminders of why this is a priority for our family.


The above was written for a newsletter. What follows are a few other thoughts:

Another theme that has popped up in different areas of life is balance. Everyday there seems to be some extreme argument for what we should or should not do in parenting, in medicine, in education, in church, in business, in our personal devotions, in farming, in politics, and the list could go on. However, so much of life comes down to balance. When the pendulum swings too far to one side, something has to give. 

When there is a balance, I feel healthier because I am eating and exercising properly, students learn well because they are receiving a balanced education, churches grow because people are working together, and children feel safe because they are being loved. The utmost important balance, is the balance I experience as a Christian. I know that God is the ultimate balance. He has everything in his control, and for me, that gives everything balance. When my prayer life is strong, all areas of my daily life feel stronger.

At this point in my life, I am not pretending to have it all figured out. In fact, I feel like the more I know, the less I know, or maybe the less I want to know. If I went back to my 20 year old self, and told her that this is what I would be doing and where I would be, she probably would believe some of it, and she would probably not want to believe some of it.

Nevertheless, I have so much to be thankful. I have an excellent church, wonderful colleagues and friends and family, and an awesome God. I have a full life, and I am truly blessed.

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