A question of priorities

We've had a great few days over Christmas. The fact that two of our three children are now married adds a little complication to Christmas arrangements, with them having two lots of families to visit! However, it just so happened this year that we managed to be all together for Christmas Day itself.

After the Christmas morning church service we had Christmas lunch, then spent most of the rest of the day playing games (breaking, of course, for the Queen's speech!) It was great to be able to spend some time together as a family and have plenty of laughs.

Steph and Matt left Doncaster yesterday to travel over to Matt's family, and Chris and Megan left this morning to travel down to Essex to Megan's family. Caroline has gone over to Sheffield to visit friends, so the house seems very quiet indeed.

I woke up fairly early this morning and on my way to the loo I noticed that the door to the bedroom where Chris and Megan were sleeping was slightly ajar. I thought it was strange, but didn't think much more about it. I later discovered that they had been up and out early to catch the big sale at Next. They arrived at Next at 5am only to find a couple of hundred people ahead of them in the queue! Obviously people were desperately keen to grab a bargain.

A couple of weeks' ago Sue and I visited a gentleman who has asked for help with a certain issue. We spent some time with him and hopefully were of some help. During our conversation he said a couple of times, "I just don't have time to go to church." We hadn't raised the issue at all, so I'm not sure why he mentioned it (unless he feels a bit guilty).

These two incidents have got me thinking about the whole issue of priorities. The truth is that we can usually make time for the things we regard as priorities. I know people who spend many hours and considerable amounts of money travelling the length and breadth of the country following their football team. Why? Because for them it's a priority.

Jesus talked quite a lot about priorities, and did so in a very challenging way. In effect he said that if we decide to follow him, then he must become our first priority. No half measures! The year 2010 will soon be at an end. The coming of a new year is a great time to reassess our personal priorities. It's certainly something I'll be doing.