Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “A life that matters”
Our Bible verse for today: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “Establish proper priorities”
At one point in my career as a Naval Officer I served as an instructor at the Surface Warfare Officer’s School in Coronado, CA. The purpose of the school was to prepare newly commissioned officers for their first assignment onboard a Navy warship. I taught courses in Propulsion Engineering and Basic Leadership Principles.
In the Basic Leadership course one of the issues I addressed is something known as “the tyranny of the urgent.” This is a principle which states that the thing that makes the most noise or which seems to be the most pressing, is the thing most likely to capture your attention and get your time. This can be a problem because the things that sometimes seem the most urgent are often not really the most important.
That ringing telephone seems urgent because it’s making noise and begging for your attention, but your time would actually be better spent comforting your distraught child who simply needs to be held for a few moments. Or a co-worker walks into your office wanting you to take care of something for them (right away), but you’re already involved in something that’s more important to you. Does their sense of urgency trump your priorities? The answer should be “no”. I’m reminded of the old saying, “A lack of planning on your part doesn’t constitute an emergency on my part.”
The point that Solomon was making in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 is that there is proper time for everything and therefore everything has to be keep in its proper place. He’s talking about getting your priorities right and then living by them. But for many of us this isn’t easy. We find ourselves continuously subjected to “the tyranny of the urgent” and we allow those “urgent” things to interfere with our priorities.
Very early in my adult life I discovered that in order to protect myself from the tyranny of the urgent I had to actually write-out my priorities, on a daily to-do-list, and then stick to them. Number one on my list, everyday, is my time with God. I get up early everyday and spend time with God before anything else can happen to get in the way. Number two on my list, everyday, is time with my family. For forty years I have always made it a point to have at least a few moments of quality time at the beginning of the day with my wife (and with my children when they still lived at home). Exercise is on my list, everyday. So is some time for reading.
My point in all of this is that as we approach 2017, and we give thought to how we will spend our time and what kinds of things we are going to involve ourselves in, we have to set good priorities and then stick to them. Don’t allow your life to be dominated and directed by the tyranny of the urgent. Take control, establish priorities, stick to them, and keep everything in its proper time and place.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 