To be list

Wow!  We kicked off our MOPS speakers with a bang.  A woman who usually comes to speak to us about personality types instead presented  a talk on "The Main Thing is to keep the Main Thing the Main Thing."  Read it again, it's a tongue twister.  In short, our priorities could be a little messed up.  She had presented this talk to another women's group at the church and had a hand out and bible study that followed.  It was a great way for our small group to get to know each other.

She first discussed "6 symptoms of Misplaced Priorities" that was taken from Chip Ingram's message, "Balancing Life's Demands", Living on the Edge daily broadcast.  See if these strike a chord with you, they did with me...

Your priorities might be misplaced if you have....

• Busyness that is barren of fruit- the activity trap
• Emotional stress & pressure
• Low grade nagging guilt
• Financial Debt
• Prayerlessness- "leakage" in your devotional life
• Escapism behavior. 

The question is If you feel any of the above symptoms, could it be a result of misplaced priorities?

Don't worry, she didn't leave us there feeling all guilty and worried about our priorities being pretty well screwed up!  We worked through some scripture that gave us a chance to see priorities based on something other than "our life".  We feel our life pushing us sometimes.  We can't catch up and something is always behind us causing us to run or just feel pressured.  God's Word does have something to say about priorities!  

We were able to spend 15 minutes in quiet, working through the passages at our own pace.  I ended up just stuck on Colossians 1:15-20.  The part I read over and over was where it talks about how in Christ, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.  I kept questioning if based on my priorities God would be pleased to dwell in me?  I know God is dwelling in me right now, but hopefully you get my point.  It isn't my works that do anything for salvation, but is my life a reflection of Christ?  

In the end, our speaker had us list our priorities again but this time it was a little different.  God can't be a priority.  God is the one living in us as we make our priorities.  God is not part of the check list.  You can't stick God at the top of the list.  God is the list.  And more importantly, it isn't a list.  If God is dwelling in us, it is a way of life.  My priorities should reflect that.  It's hard to grasp sometimes that your kids aren't your #1 priority, your spouse is.  That is so hard to say out loud or type.  But it is true.  You will hear it all the time, but it's learning to live that way. 

Our priorities are all about relationships.  No where in the bible does it say you have to have a clean house.  It's my relationship with my husband and my kids and my family and friends and all of those other things on my priorities.  Granted, maybe a clean house is a small priority because it helps your relationships, but life is not a "to do" list.  Life is a "to be" list.  I want to be a wife that does xyz, a mom that does abc, a friend that does "something".  Most importantly, I want to be someone who does things in love.  And not just any love, but a love that comes because God first loved us!

Oh and if that wasn't enough, God isn't done with me yet.  I will tell you more about that tomorrow...