“Seek first his kingship over you, his way of holiness, and all these things will be given you besides.” Mark 6:33
Steven Covey tells a story that shines a light on our life’s priorities. He explains that one day a college professor brought out a gallon-size glass jar. He took a bag of large rocks and began putting them into the jar. After a few minutes, the rocks reached the top. He turned and asked the class, “Who thinks the jar is full?” They all raised their hands.
The teacher just smiled and brought out a bowl of pebbles and poured them into the jar. Each pebble landed between the open spaces of the rocks until they, too, were all in the jar. He asked his class again if they thought the jar was full. The class agreed; it was very full.
He smiled again, as he brought out one thing more: a bucket of sand. He poured the sand into the jar until every nook and cranny was completely filled. He looked out at his students and said, “We know the jar is definitely full now. But, would all this fit if we weren’t careful how we filled the jar? What would happen if we first filled the jar with sand – would we still be able to fit the rocks in the jar?
“You might get a couple of the rocks in,” one student offered, “but definitely not all the rocks. There’d be no room doing it that way.” The rest of the class agreed.
The professor asked the students to think of the jar as their schedules. The rocks represented all the important things in life. He reminded them they all concluded the jar was full even when just those rocks filled it. He encouraged them all to focus on filling their calendars and lives with the important things first and allow the less important things to trickle into the cracks that remain.
Too often, we get our priorities mixed up, don’t we? If your life could be represented by a glass jar, what have you been filling it with these days? If your first thought goes to money and material possessions, then maybe you are filling your jar with the sand. Might that focus be taking up too much space in your life? Is there a way to re-prioritize? Would faith be considered a big rock of yours, something you put in first, or just a grain of sand?
There is no better time than the Easter season to prioritize our lives and make sure we are putting God first. And there is no better time than every day to remember that God put us first when He gave us His only Son. If we remember to put our faith and our relationship with Jesus first, everything else that matters will find a way to fall into place.
Amen? Amen!
Watering the Seeds
What are your “big rocks”- the most important things you focus on every day?
Is there something in your life taking up too much space right now? How might you re-prioritize?
