My hats off to You...

As she entered the room, she was walking fast and talking fast and had a rather large bag in her hand.  "I am just so busy," she said.  As she scurried around the tables where we sat, she began pulling hats out of the bag she was carrying and handing them to different people throughout the room.  Each hat had a label attached to it.  "MOTHER", "WIFE", "DAUGHTER", "TAXI", "CAREGIVER", "BUSINESS-OWNER", "BIBLE STUDY LEADER"...there had to be at least 15 or 20 hats in that bag.  As she pulled a hat out of her bag, she would give a little synopsis of what it represented and say, "I don't have time to be a mother today.  I've simply got too much to do."  As she would pull a hat out of the bag she would say, "I don't have time to be a wife, daughter, taxi driver, caregiver, etc. today because I just have too much to do."  I remember one label on a beautiful hat read "MIMI" in which she explained that was her favorite "job" in the whole wide world - being a "Mimi" to her grandchildren, but she really didn't have time to be a "Mimi" today.  She went on to explain all of the different hats she "wears".  

The message she spoke that day will be forever grained into my mind as it spoke to my soul.  She talked of the priorities we have in our life.  If we will sit back for a second and think about the "thing" that is most important in our lives, we will find our priority.  Maybe it is our children, our favorite pass-time, our families, our jobs, our "beauty" (I mean we do have to get our hair and nails done...right?).  So many things vie for our attention and not all things (like the things I've just mentioned) are bad or detrimental to us are they?  Certainly our spouses, children, jobs and hobbies are important but are they more important that our fellowship with God?  Sometimes they seem to overtake us and we lose our focus on the most important thing....our relationship with God.   

I have talked with several people over the last couple of weeks and I seem to hear the same sentence repeated over and over and over: "I just feel so disconnected from God and my friends of faith".  And that, my friends, is easy to do.  Why?  Because life happens.  Just like yesterday's post...our time ticks away...second by second; we are living our "dash".  But it is up to US as to how to live out our dash.

Did you realize if YOU don't set your OWN priorities then the world will set them for you?  That is a freedom we get to exercise but so often we often let things of the world set our priorities for us!  

According to Webster's dictionary, priority is defined as superiority in rank, position or privilege.  So what serves as priority in your life?  What or who gets "top rank" in your thoughts?  What or who do you spend the majority of your money on?  How do you spend your time?  What do you live for?  What give you focus in life?  

I'm gonna get a little personal here for a second.  Do you make it a priority to get up on Sunday mornings to go worship God or is it easier to stay snuggled up under the covers and watch TV?  If you do make it to church, are you truly worshiping God during that time period or are you busy wondering what you will eat for lunch or maybe mulling over the argument you had with your spouse or child on the way to church?  Do you get your "time" in with God each day or does He get your "leftover" time (which who ever has any "leftover" time...right?)  Is God a passing thought to you...maybe you think of Him when you are in need of an answered prayer but other than that, you have Him put of on the shelf covered in dust?  Just how far down is God on our "Priority List"?

I post these questions to "you" but I am actually posing them to MYSELF!  I find myself feeling disconnected too from time to time but this I do know....my disconnection is my OWN doing!  I may have my "God hat" on my head but it is covered by 4 or 5 other hats that have somehow taken priority in my life.  That's when I have to slow down, stop, and take a look at my values and beliefs.  And 9 times out of 10, I have somehow covered Him up with the other hats that vie for my attention!

So what hat will you find on your head today?  Is it time to move it down?  Maybe it's time to throw that ol' hat away and get a new one!  Whatever the case, you can bet if God is our "top hat", all the other hats will fall into their perfect place!

Just something to ponder....

Until next time....