Skip to main content

Glass Vase of Priorities

This story and questions are copied from a devotional in the Disciples Path series.

According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, the definition of priority is "something requiring or meriting attention prior to competing alternatives."  A priority is something that is most important.  It's something that takes first place and is of greater value than anything else.  When you look at the life of Jesus you will recognize that God's Word, prayer, obedience, love, and investing in others were the priorities of His life.  Are these things your priorities?

A man was once given a glass vase, a bowl of pebbles, and a sack or large stones.  He was told to put all the rocks into the glass vase.  He started by filling the glass with the pebbles, but there was no room left for the stones.  So he removed the pebbles, placed the large rocks in first, and then filled the gaps with the pebbles until they were all in the glass.  The vase represents our lives and the capacity of time we have in a given day.  We have many "pebbles" that fill up our days: emails, deadlines, errands, favorite TV shows, or sporting events.  If we aren't careful, our time can be filled with pebbles, and the big rocks are crowded out.  But if we put the large stones in first - God's Word and prayer, love and obedience, investing in others - then the pebbles fill the gaps and the big things in life won't get squeezed out.

Which "small pebble" priorities are getting in the way of your "large stone" priorities?

What do you consider the "large stone" priorities in your life?

What changes need to happen to make room for the "large stones" in your daily routine?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2020 is Hindsight...Finally!

Wow, what a year! 2020 could literally be an entire decade, maybe more, of history, change, and lessons rolled up into these twelve months. While many aspects of 2020 were kind of sucky and we would like to forget them, it will certainly be a year to remember. And it will be enlightening when this year is looked back on in 10, 25, or 50 years to be discussed. I wonder if we'll seem like geniuses or idiots? Probably both to some extent! While there is so much that I could consider and analyze about this year, I'll try to break some of it down into four dimensions - Physical, Spiritual, Mental, and Social/Emotional. These are events and happenings from my world and perspective and I'm trying to be open in sharing and would love to hear from others on events you found most transforming. Physical When COVID cause gyms to close, that messed me up. Our town and state were late to be hit with severe cases and therefore later than many across the country to close up shop. I'm n...
Post a Comment
Read more

How to Pray - The Object of Our Prayer

In our College & Career Sunday school class this week, we started a series titled, "How to Pray."  I plan to try to and share the lessons each week in case anyone wants to follow along with us here...or you can come join us Sunday mornings at Tabernacle at 10 AM in room 218. Any good speaker, teacher, or presenter knows that the #1 rule of public speaking is to know your audience.  You don't want to prepare a discussion about retirement for preschoolers and a presentation themed with Disney princesses most likely wouldn't spark the interest of a group of businessmen.  In order for someone to prepare a dynamic and engaging presentation, they must know their audience, who they're preparing to talk to. The same is true in our prayer life.  The Point of this week's study is: "A right view of God fuels how we pray."  The conversations we engage in with our friends about are often focused on topics that interest them: their favorite team, favorite ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Waves of Change

I often hear older people talk about the "good old days" or "back in my day" and they wish that things would go back to the way they were back then. That will never happen. And sadly, many of us in the millennial generation may even make the same statements one day, if we haven't already.  A.W. Tozer said this, " Regardless of where you look these days, change is inevitable. Things are not what they once were. I am not one that bemoans the past for the simple reason that the past was not as good as we remember." People, technology, industry, work, laws, morals, relationships, social media, privacy and so many other things will always be changing. If you want to survive the storms of change in your life you must have some constant that holds you on course.  There is only one things that never changes, that has never had to change because He has always been good and perfect - God.  Malachi 3:6 reads, "For I the Lord do not change......
Post a Comment
Read more