Keeping Our Priorities Straight

Guest Blogger: Scott Allen

This is an actual picture of the actual windshield of my son’s car yesterday. He’s fine. Thank God! It was a really freak incident and he handled it amazingly well. Debbie and I had been praying over him off and on all day. We witnessed an accident early in the morning that served as a “prayer cue” to cover our children in prayer – especially their vehicles and safety.

Yesterday afternoon his hood came unlatched while he was driving, came back and smashed his windshield. There were no injuries and no accidents. Just a smashed windshield, a very thankful family and a faithful God who daily makes his wisdom available to anyone who will tune in to receive it.

Take this opportunity to cover yourself and your family in prayer. Make a commitment to listen to wisdom when it comes and keep your priorities straight. You will never be sorry for following the goodness and mercy of God.

Psalm 91 (NLT)

Those who live in the shelter of the Most High
will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
This I declare about the Lord :
He alone is my refuge, my place of safety;
he is my God, and I trust him.
For he will rescue you from every trap
and protect you from deadly disease.
He will cover you with his feathers.
He will shelter you with his wings.
His faithful promises are your armor and protection.
Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night,
nor the arrow that flies in the day.
Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness,
nor the disaster that strikes at midday.
Though a thousand fall at your side,
though ten thousand are dying around you,
these evils will not touch you.
Just open your eyes,
and see how the wicked are punished.

If you make the Lord your refuge,
if you make the Most High your shelter,
no evil will conquer you;
no plague will come near your home.
For he will order his angels
to protect you wherever you go.
They will hold you up with their hands
so you won't even hurt your foot on a stone.
You will trample upon lions and cobras;
you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet!

The Lord says, "I will rescue those who love me.
I will protect those who trust in my name.
When they call on me, I will answer;
I will be with them in trouble.
I will rescue and honor them.
I will reward them with a long life
and give them my salvation."

Got it all together? Me neither. . .

A dream becomes a goal the moment you write it down.
A goal becomes a plan the moment you break it down into doable steps.
A plan becomes a reality only when you take action.

Proverbs 27:12 - The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.

A prudent person is a wise person. He is aware of the cause and effect relationship between what he chooses today and what he experiences tomorrow. What’s decided in one season of life will affect the next season – better or worse.

Everyone – yes everyone makes decisions every day that affect what their future looks like. Everyone does this -- every day. (Me especially) (and you especially).

Let me ask you a question. Are you satisfied today with the results of your decisions, your actions, your habits over the past three years? All of them? Most people are not.

What do you wish was different?

One of the lies we need to settle for ourselves is this: As humans we want to create a persona that says, “I have it all together.” We want people to say, “How did they pull it off?”

But what does God require of us?

Paul prayed in Phil 1:9-11: I pray that your love will keep on growing (#1) in knowledge and every kind of discernment, so that you can determine what really matters (#2) and can be pure and blameless in the day of Christ (#3) filled with the fruit of righteousness (#4) that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Being 50 brings some added personal responsibility

Remember my 180 to 50 goals?

One of them was to schedule a colonoscopy for myself (oh yeah baby!)(I can now say: “Check!”)

Friends have said that the anticipation of the procedure is worse than the thing itself. (I will let you know in May)

During my last checkup, my doctor gave me several items to do before I see her again. It seems that approaching a 50th birthday opens up a whole new file in the doctor's office with do’s and don’ts and add this much more calcium daily and schedule some routine exams you never had before. That sort of thing.

Colonoscopy is one of those things I needed to take some personal responsibility for. What about you? (You don’t have to personally reply to that question)

On a serious note to encourage all of my fellow “50ish” friends, here are some statistics to encourage you to take good care of yourself. (You are worth it!)

• If all Americans were screened regularly, it would save 25,000 lives each year.

• When diagnosed early, 90% of colorectal cancers are completely curable.

• About 75% of people in the U.S. who develop colorectal cancer are 50 or older with no other identifiable risk factors.

• Getting a colonoscopy can reduce the average person's risk of dying from colorectal cancer by 90%.

Again, let me repeat. You are worth it! Take every action you know to take to be healthy! We need you!

Graduation - a change, gradually

If you have kids in school, especially high school, you know the end of the school year is right around the corner. The countdown has begun at my house . . . T-minus 19 school days to go.

I have a high school senior living at my house. And although in so many ways, the close of these next few weeks seems like the end of something, in reality . . . it’s a beginning.

Commencement -- That’s what we are preparing for right now . . . A ceremony prefaced by senior pictures orders, cap and gown measurements, announcements sent. Signaling the end of high school – yes. But yet . . .

The word “Commencement” is interesting here. Commencement defined: Beginning, first, kickoff.

It’s the beginning of a thing …. Not the ending of a thing.

Our son is graduating . . . this word is not an “ending” word either. It means to change, gradually. So, although the finishing of high school is certainly a major accomplishment and a major step, it is meant to be a gradual change in life . . . a gradual change to the next thing (in his case, it's college).

This applies to the parents too. Our son is our second (and last) child to graduate from high school. It’s an odd feeling . . . and yet, has been a graduation for us too --- a change, gradually.

So we all are commencing . . . beginning something new. We are parents, now, of grown adult children. It’s a little bit amazing to us. The years do roll along at a pretty swift pace, and yet, it’s gentle (at times), fun, overwhelming in moments, but steady. Time is time and the passing of it remains predictable. We have learned to make the most of it, enjoy every day, create memorable “bookmarks” for our children in their growing up, and cherish the responsibility the Lord gave us for these two amazing kids.

And so . . . we watch another beginning . . .