Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Mar/93

Contributor - Kathleen Gerstner

Title - Where Is Your Heart?

Topic - Priorities

If I told you that, as an extra bonus, tomorrow would have 25 hours, or next week 8 days, what would you do with the extra time? Why would you choose what you just did? Or to put it another way, how do your spend the 24 hours per day, 7 days per week that you do have? How do you prioritize your time?

If you, like most of us, are a faithful follower of the Protestant work ethic, probably most of your time is spent working. This could be at a place of employment, cleaning, cooking, fixing the car, maintaining your home.... If so, great you 're probably wasting very Battle time. Give yourself a pat on the back.

However, let's think a bit more about this. Is prioritizing work really the best use of your time? A Biblical passage that keeps coming to my mind is Matthew 6:19-21, "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

What is your treasure? What do you value? You can tell where your heart is by looking at how you choose to prioritize your time. When you have a free hour, are you eager to grab your Bible, or the TV remote, or a garden hoe? Do you have time to play a game with your family, or are those dishes or the garden work more important? This is not to say that it is not good to work or that watching TV is necessarily wrong. We all have important work that must be done, and we all need some time for relaxation. However, when the external appearance of ourself, our home, or other possessions becomes more important to us than our inner relationship to God or our family, a warning light should go off signaling a need to change.

Maybe you are thinking that even though you may spend that extra time caring for your possessions, you still spend "quality" time with the Lord and your family. If you really believe that, you're only fooling yourself "Quality" time is probably one of the biggest falsehoods invented by the "me" generation of the eighties. It just doesn't exist. Possibly, in an unusual situation and for a short time, "quality" time may be effective; however, in the long run, if you don't have quantity, you can't have true quality.

In this Lenten season, it is imperative that all of us examine our hearts and see what we really do value most in life. Remember the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12:13-21? His priority was his possessions. He may have thought that later, when he had what he wanted, he would give some "quality" time to God and others. But he didn't have that opportunity. Life is too short to worry about external, physical things. Our first priority must be God and His Word, and secondly, our relationships with others.

In this family column in coming issues of The Pioneer, we hope to address many concerns related to family life. But unless you truly treasure God and His Word first, and your relationships second, all the writing in the world will make no difference and what you "treasured" will be consumed by moth or rust, be stolen or fade away, and what will you have left? What do you treasure? Think about it.

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