Balance and Priorities

How do you tell which one should be on top of your priority list?  I am seriously asking, just, how do you decide?  What considerations do you make to know which one should be first?

I always go for my gut feel or indulge myself to what I want, which I know isn’t the best thing to do, cos often, what I want isn’t what I need to do.  I want to sleep but I need to finish a work, for example… what I’d do – I’d sleep! ((: I’m sure I’ll get enough time for work, I do not have enough time for sleep.  My reasoning!

It took me quite a while to learn to ask the right questions and to weigh stuff so I can prioritise well.  Not rightly or correctly because there isn’t a right or correct way, in my opinion, on how priorities should be set.  We are a diverse set of people, we have different needs, different wants, different sets of thinking.  But whenever I am really caught in a dilemma and the options seem to all weigh equally as I see them, I recall to mind this inspiring text I encountered before: Put God first, then self, then your family before everything else.  I grew up thinking that to be a good person, you put yourself LAST! Talk about being brain-washed by the society I grew up in. Hahaha training for martyrdom?  Self here, however, doesn’t mean selfish desires but to value yourself and respect yourself.  That is one way we honor God, when we respect and value our body, us, His creation.  We also need to take care of ourselves before we can take care of others so logically, self should not be at the bottom but right there, after God. The next time work demands more than the time it should be, think about yourself.  But never make that as an excuse to not work.  We all have to work, yet we also have to live.  Never ever think that we live to work or we were created to work, we are all created to love and to live, to work is one of the way we get to make a living, that’s it.  I was once a workaholic and I’m very glad I grew out of it, thank You, Lord. ;) The world doesn’t revolve around a job or the money, never was, never will.

“We need a balance between work and play, between kindness and firmness, between waiting and praying, between savings and spending, between wanting too much and expecting too little, between warm acceptance and keen discernment, between grace and truth.”

Charles Swindoll

They say how you make your priorities and how you balance your life says a lot about you.  So, how do you set yours? Do you have a mental checklist or a set that you follow?