Daily Dose 29: Shelving Values and Priorities

If you have been dabbling in the priority gathering experiment, several little lists may be piled in front of you by now: verses, responsibilities, Titus 2 priorities, dreams you were brave enough to commit to paper, answers to long-range questions. Now what? Well, it’s just about time to box them up, set them on the shelf, and forget about them for awhile, that’s what! 

One good way to box them up is to set the “Bible” lists and the “Personal” lists side by side and compare the two. How elegantly do the personal items tuck into categories on the Bible list? Are there many items on the personal list not fitting well into the Bible categories? Or are there cozy niches on the Bible list for almost everything practical? Can everything be meshed into one list? Do you find yourself  murmuring deep in your soul, “Yes, Lord, this is what I really want my life to count for,” for an area or two on one of your lists? Are items on either list gripping your mind? Have any areas convinced you they need better performance, more consistency, or more attention?

Maybe a few personal responsibilities to the Lord and to yourself  have been neglected, or something with your children, or one or two practical housekeeping areas could be tightened up and improved.

. . .If yes, then during your next Executive Oversight meeting, keep those ideas out as you box up the rest. “Keep them out” by making another list, a list that will be your first little projects to think about and experiment with over the coming weeks and months.

. . .If no, perhaps nothing seems to present itself yet in your priority lists. If that is the case just make them nice and neat and orderly and tuck them away in your notebook, scheduling them for an EO second look three months off. Don’t worry, they will still be there when you come back to them. Priorities are like that, they don’t change over the long haul, even when the events inside of them do.

In the meantime, add a request to your prayer list: as you attend to responsibilities over the coming months, pray the Lord will bring your priorities into focus. Then use EO to streamline some housekeeping or work day routines. Or try to prepare your own little teaching lessons on various topics: how I would teach someone to make a bed, how I would teach someone to cut an onion, how I would teach someone to read through the Bible. Concentrate on some practical projects while priorities simmer.

Here is the beauty of EO: nothing is wasted and nothing is going away. Any facet of your life can receive special attention within the time frame you determine: a week, two weeks, a month, a half a year. Whether “your list”  is very structured from one to ten, or a less structured rambling of your mind as you review the verses and notes you have pulled together, is really dependent on what helps you stay balanced between the grand overview of your life and the events that fill your day to day.

Over the years returning to my “priority package” of endeavoring to live a holy life as a teacher of good things to myself, my children, my friends has been that perfect balance of practical and panoramic. I am pricked by both the panoramic view of home building, and practical projects to fix my failings. I am challenged by the overarching grandness of it all and by the practical reality that hundreds of  weekly obedience behavior sequences with children each requires attention. Through it all, I’ve learned the powerful time tool called cycles of concentration effectively balances the package of priorities and responsibilities that are mine to oversee for the Lord’s work in our family. Maybe you will find that true as well.