Exaltation Through Priority Time

exalting - Exaltation through Priority Time

There is an appointed time for everything. Ecclesiastes 3:1, NASB

Teresa and I have found if you don’t plan time for your marriage, the “tyranny of every other thing” will destroy it. For more than ten years, we have met for lunch once a week. We each made the time a priority, avoiding conflicts and distractions as much as possible. Each week we did our family “calendaring” together for the next week, including social engagements, kids’ activities, and nights for working late. We noticed an immediate benefit just from both of us knowing ahead of time what our plans were. Namely, we were less irritated and had less conflict.

After getting a grip on the urgent things in our schedule, we used our weekly times to begin eliminating activities of a lesser priority and adding items we saw as more important, items such as a weekly date together and periodic getaways. One guideline for using our time commitments was that neither of us would commit to an activity that would affect us both until we discussed it together. With our schedules better under control and more fun activities on our calendar, we began to use our time to talk more about goal setting and dreams for the future. The benefits were self-evident: Appreciative reflections and caring words between us came more frequently.

We changed our meeting time from Thursday to Saturday some time back, but the benefits are so great that our meetings are here to stay!

Time is one of our precious resources, and how we “invest” it represents an important aspect of our life priorities. The priorities are: time with God, time with one another, time for family, then time for other things.

How will you set your priorities where your use of time is concerned?