When talking about priorities many people will tell others what they should prioritize. You might remember the acronym J.O.Y. from Sunday school class; Jesus first, Others next, and Yourself last. That may be good, but that is not what I want to pass along when it comes to priorities. With one exception that is. I think that we all can agree that family comes first.

I will leave the priorities between you and God to establish. What I want to do is to give you 4 essentials after establishing your priorities to live them out.

1. Learn to say no.
   1. There are only 24 hours in a day and you have finite resources. A person cannot do everything, so you need to prioritize, but that means you will need to say no to what isn’t most important.
2. If need be – explain the no.
   1. There is usually a guilt that comes with the no. While getting ready for youth camp I had to tell my kids no to a lot of things they wanted me to do. They were disappointed until I reminded them what I was doing…after that they were good with the no, and my guilt was eased.
3. Find which fire will cause the greatest damage and focus on that one.
   1. It would be nice to extinguish all fires, but that isn’t always possible. Find which one will cause most damage and extinguish that one.
4. Learn to change focus when it is necessary.
   1. Priorities are fluid. Sometimes a priority needs to change because the fire is more intense somewhere else. Although I do believe in focus, there are times when the focus will need to be changed.

Listen to the recording for a deeper dive into this topic. If you like it then subscribe on iTunes and send us an email and tell us what you want to hear next.