Modern Christian Mom's Guide to the Galaxy - Prioritizing your Time

Being a successful wife, mom, stepmom and member of the community starts with being a good and faithful daughter to God. Life is constantly throwing commitments, appointments, and opportunities our way. It's hard to determine: Is this something I really need to do? Is it something I really should be doing? Which one of these is more important? Which one of these should I be saying no to?

Because there are many good choices on how to spend my time, I use God's divine list of priorities to determine how important something is and how I will delegate my time.


HOW TO PRIORITIZE YOUR COMMITMENTS:

1. Personal relationship with our Heavenly Father: Assign the #1 slot to God. Before all else, make Him our #1 priority. He goes before our husbands, our children and ourselves. He goes before money, bills, work, volunteering. He goes first. I promise you, that if we make God and our personal relationship with Him our first priority, He will not let the other important things fall. We need to consult with Him during our quiet moments. Take time to read the word He has given us. Lay all things down before our Father. Live our lives in whole-hearted devotion to God.

Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness 

and all these things will be given to you as well

Deuteronomy 6:5 Love the LORD God with all your heart and with all 

your soul and with all your strength.

Proverbs 16:3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans

Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  

Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and 

with all your soul and with all your mind.

Proverbs 3:6 In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight

Exodus 20:3 You shall have no other gods before me

2. Commitment to home and family - especially our spouses and children: note that I placed spouse before children. In my blog, I will spend a lot of time writing about being a mom, but I know before I am a mother, I am a wife. That is God's plan, for me to hold my husband above my children. I know some mothers will churn at this and think "no way, my kids come first"....but that is not how God's plan was designed for us. If we truly have a heart for Jesus Christ, we will do this, and we will find it is good. (I will go more into this dynamic in a future post). Also, do not limit this to just our immediate family. Extend this priority to include our extended family as well.

Genesis 2:24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother 

and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Psalm 127:3 Children are a heritage from the LORD, 

offspring a reward from him.

Ephesians 5:22 Wives, submit yourself to your own husband 

as you do to the Lord

Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ

loved the church and gave himself up for her.

Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do you exasperate your children; instead, bring them

up in the training and the instruction of the Lord

1 Timothy 3:2-4 Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. 

1 Peter 3:7 Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and 

treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious

gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

Ruth 1:16-17 But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you do I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me."

3. Responsibilities to our employer: this is a priority most of us cannot ignore. We need to work to earn wages to provide for our family God blessed us with. We must follow through with our commitments to our employers and those we agreed to labor for. For most people, work is the only way to earn a living but we must be careful to remember that work is #3 on the list. 

1 Timothy 5:8 Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially their own household,

has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody

Proverbs 12:11 Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those who chase fantasies have no sense.

2 Timothy 2:6 The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops

Genesis 2:15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the 

Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

4. Service to community and church ministries: God wants us to get involved and seek opportunities to display his love through volunteering. Whether it's serving in a ministry at our church or coaching a softball team, our Lord wants us to make time to be involved. 

1 Peter 4:10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful 

stewards of God's grace in ts various forms.

Galatians 6:10  Therefor, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially

to those who belong to the family of believers.

Luke 6:35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.

Acts 20:35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'it is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

Proverbs 11:24 One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds 

unduly, but comes to poverty.

When we know how God wants us to prioritize our time, we can sort out our day to prioritize items according to His will. Prayerfully consider each task, then proceed to do the most important things first. Remember to keep God first, consult with Him regularly, stay spiritually fit, and find quiet time to talk with our Father each day.