Gratitude Day 582

Hebrews 12:10 – Our parents corrected us for the short time of our childhood as it seemed good to them. But God corrects us throughout our lives for our own good, giving us an invitation to share his holiness.

What is MOST IMPORTANT to you?

Seriously. If you knew that you only had 24 hours to live, what would you want to do with those 24 hours?

My guess is not clean your house. Or do a load of laundry. I hope you would find more meaningful things than this.

What if you had a week to live? I’m still hoping no laundry.

What if you went to the doctor today and was informed that you have one whole year?

Had we started with the year; it would not have seemed like enough. But after going through 24 hours and a week, a year sounds like an eternity.

I’m doing just fine, thank you very much, but I have been thinking about the “if I only had a year” stuff. Honestly? I’m afraid that I wouldn’t make the right choices. I know that I’d get distracted and consumed with the wrong things.

Truthfully, I’m not sure we can really answer this question unless we were in this situation.

But let’s just pretend … and hope it doesn’t happen soon. What would be the things that you’d want to focus on the most? Spend your most time? What priorities would be THE ABSOLUTE most important?

This is today’s Lenten thought. Pull out a piece of paper and a pen. Write down your Top 5 Priorities of your life. The things that mean the most to you. What you’d want to give up last in your life. Where you hope your legacy will be stamped.

Now, pull out your calendar. How much time and energy did you put into those five items during the month of February? Since the first of the year? Yesterday?

I know. This exercise isn’t super easy. It’s hard to narrow life down to five. Every time I do this exercise, I always get a few random questions like this:

Are all of your children grouped together? Or are they counted separated? Answer: You choose. I’m not the counting police.

Do I have to account for the medicine I must take? Answer: You choose.

You get the drill.

Let’s go back and look at your list of your 5 priorities. Look long and hard at them. If they are your priorities, is this where you are spending the majority of your time? Energy? Resources?

If not, why not?

If not, are they really your priorities?

I’ve revisited this exercise countless times in my life. Sometimes, the priorities shift. Other times, they have remained very much in the same order. But these are the most important things in my life.

Or so I say.

As you look at where you spend your time, is there something that sucks up a lot of your time that didn’t make your Top 5 Priority list? This happens and has for me many times. We find something that we put a lot of time and energy into even though it’s not a Top 5. Here’s the hard question: should you continue putting all of this time and energy into this?

If not, then maybe this is something that you should stop delegating so much time and energy to. Maybe this is something that you should cut back on. Or stop?

It’s hard to stop doing the things that take up our time and we may nor not love doing. Of course, there are certainly simply parts of our lives that we have to do something, even if it’s not our favorite. This is called LIFE.

But for the rest of our time, let’s try and fill it with the things that we LOVE to do. The things that bring us great joy and happiness. The things that we look forward to doing every day.

These are the things that should be our Top 5 Priorities. As you go through today, try to design your day in such a way that you ARE focusing on the Top 5 Priorities of your life. If the right things aren’t on your list? God may have a way to reminding you of the special things you love to do.

For those things that aren’t on our list but take a lot of your time and energy? Try to cut back.

I know some of this is hard. I know it will not be resolved in the next several days. Begin today by identifying what’s most important. You can tackle some of the other stuff later. But just start with one big step today.

Quick reminder – daily, I’m posting a short little video on Instagram about each day’s Lenten surrender. They are short. Like five minutes. Hop on over and listen!

For having important and great things in my life, I am grateful.

Blessings –

Dianne

Dear God – There are so many good and important choices that we can make daily. It’s not easy to zero in on what is most important when there are so many things clanging for our attention. Help me identify the most important things in my life. And then, help me keep these as the most important things I focus on daily. Amen.

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