Considering I have not posted since my very first blog post (which was almost 7 months ago), I'm pretty sure I have not been living up to the name of my blog. But hey, it's a new year (even if it is already January 26th), and I'm going to give it another try. I am naturally a goal setter, and every New Year's, I make several resolutions - one being to have a daily priority time. This is an area of my life that I have struggled with since I became a Christian 20 years ago. I have all the right intentions and the head knowledge of why I need a priority time daily, but somehow, I have yet to establish it as a permanent part of my daily routine. Well, 26 days into the new year, I am proud to say that I am succeeding. My pastor, Chris Conlee, at Highpoint Church challenged our whole church to read through the New Testament with him in 1 year, and he will blog (@ chrisconlee.net) his thoughts and insight into each chapter as well as his prayers. First of all, I am so thankful to be part of church with such a strong, convicted spiritual leader. He is not one of those "feel good" preachers who tells you how to make Jesus work for you. He lives out what he believes and is transparent, radical, humble, practical, passionate, and inspiring.
This may sound ridiculous, but I had to set some ground rules with my iPhone if I was going to keep my New Year's resolution of having a daily priority time. Since I got my iPhone back in April 2 years ago, it has been a true blessing and a curse at the same time. It is an excellent resource that can make my life much easier, but it also makes it way too easy to waste time on things such as Facebook and Pinterest. I really have no idea why I feel the need to check Facebook statuses every day, but it somehow became a habit. So I made a rule that I could not check Facebook until I had done my priority time. Admitting to this is a little shameful, but I'd bet that I'm not the only one who needs an intervention in this area. When I sit back and think about it, "Why would I care to hear what anyone on Facebook has to say before hearing what God wants to say to me that day?" Plain and simple, God is WAY more important so my time needs to reflect that. The only way to break an addiction is to replace it with another addiction (in my case this would be replacing my Facebook addiction with an addiction to God). I just looked online, and most websites say it takes 21 days to form a habit, and I'm already on Day 26 :). I pray that 2012 is the year that I FINALLY get my priorities straight and spend time in God's Word and in prayer daily.
It is getting late, and I definitely have lots more to share about what God has been teaching me in my priority time, but I'm going to have to do it in another post (which will hopefully be sooner than later).
John Piper tweeted one day that we will have a lot to answer for since we spend so much time checking facebook that could be spent on meditating and applying the Word of God. Great post, honey!
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