Day 22~ Define Personal Priorities~ Making wise decisions!!! God is Good.
Day 22 ~ Define Personal Priorities~
Our scripture reading comes from Proverbs 8:2-3," On the top of the heights beside the way, where the paths meet, stands Wisdom [skillful and godly]; At the gates at the entrance of the town, at the coming in at the doors she, cries out."
Making Wise Decisions
Take a moment and we read that verse. Let those words sink deep into your heart. Through our journey, we will all face decisions, and many times we can find ourselves into trouble for making decisions emotionally or based on our understanding of what we think or want. A lot of our stresses can be avoided if we took the time to think through decisions. God wants us to make wise decisions. With every decision, we have consequences. A few years ago I was working at a day care and I was still driving Ethel. One of the teacher's always talked about how bad my car looked. She would always say," You should think about getting a new car." One particular day, Ethel did not turn and start no matter what I did. I was furious that I decided to go get another car. I had no down payment or trade in. NOTHING! I was so angry that I wasn't listening to God. I was looking at a Suzuki, didn't even test drive it and my dad co-signed it. WORSE DECISION based on emotion. After getting it home, Ethel started working again after my dad did an huge over haul tune up and my dad started driving it to work. It wasn't long into having the car, that it was the WORSE DECISION EVER! The payments weren't reasonable, insurance was crazy, got a speeding ticket, and was rear ended twice. Finally, I made another decision, for them to come get it and started driving Ethel again. By that July, my mom discovered she had cancer and with my dad being gone all week long, I was with her all the time. There was no way I would have been able to make payments on that other car.
Reflection~ Your Priorities
The enemy can make you feel so ashamed and overwhelmed with things. I had the enemy make me feel ashamed of "Ethel." She isn't pretty, pretty banged up, and not the popular car of today. My priorities were changing and I had to get real with God.
1. God is always first and consult him long enough for him to answer. "Be Still."
2. Taking care of my mom!
3. Then myself
Once I started prioritize things in my life, God was able to work and it simplified my life. Was it easy? NO!! You will have people influence your decisions. I had pastors disagree and yelled at my parents for not taking care of themselves. They even told them that they were keeping me a slave to them cause they weren't healthy. God opened a door with Avon with my district manager about a year after my mom had colon surgery. She was and is an awesome mentor! Her faith in God influenced my life in those dessert times. I was working as district assistant for her and I started to realize it was time to focus on myself. Priorities changed again. Four years ago I started school at University of Phoenix and I had people that were close to me said I was making the worse decision. I remember something that my grandma said and wrote in her bible:
J- Jesus first
O-others second
Y- yourself last
The only priorities that you need! Satan cannot take your JOY unless you give it to him!
" Set priorities for your goals. A major part of successful living lies in the ability to put first things first. Indeed, the reason most major goals are not achieved is that we spend our time doing second things first."
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