Priorities

Priorities.

I've been thinking of these recently. It seems as life gets busier and more and more demands are made of you the importance of knowing your priorities becomes vital knowledge.
Getting them wrong can see conflict in your marriage, your family and in yourself. You see your free time being eaten into, your rest time, family time, husband and wife time and something has to give.

Here is my list of priorities. I've thought these over for a while in the Spirit and asked others what they think, and believe these are right:

1: The Lord.
It had to be didn't it. Above all others you must cultivate your relationship with God or the others are pretty much doomed.

2: Your Husband/Wife.

3: Your Children.
The order of these two is important. If your children eat up all the time you have for your spouse then there is no option but deterioration for that relationship. The same with your spouse taking all your time so you can't spend time with Jesus, the time might be going into the relationship but because the priorities are wrong it will suffer for it.

4: Your Job.
They pay you for your time, and that payment affords you to stay in your house, clothe yourself and family and allow you to eat. Your job is a gift from God and we need to work at it 'as unto Him'.

5: The Church.
As a friend said to me recently, Church isn't the same as God. If you don't get the above priorities correct you will not be able to operate at Church level. It's important to be committed to a church, to become part of the wider family of God, but if it's at the cost of your marriage you wont win any stars in your crown when you stand before Him. Some churches love to hold meetings, 1 a week, 2 a week, 1 every night. You just cannot agree to that level of commitment without something suffering.