Good morning people with right priorities
(By Margaret McCracken)
“Can you please tell me what is the one thing that has most contributed to your strong family?”
I have heard that question many times over the years and this time it came from a Pastor’s wife in Holland. For us it was establishing a value system in the first year of our marriage that we have endeavoured to live out ever since. Today our marriage is strong and our three children, all in their 30’s, love and honour the Lord, love and honour us, love and honour each other, and love and honour the ministry. We thank God for his marvellous grace as we have made many mistakes in our journey.
When I talk about our value system, I am talking about our convictions and priorities that we live by. We all have them, spoken or otherwise. Here are ours.
Our personal relationship with God is number one. We live for Him: to love Him, to serve Him and to please Him. He is the centre of our lives, and as we daily worship Him and rely on Him, life has become an exciting journey.
Our marriage relationship is number two. The family unit is singularly the most powerful unit in society and it is held together by the marriage relationship. We protect, nurture and give quality time to becoming best friends and partners.
Our children are number three. Our focus was the protection and nurturing of our children. Our goal right from the beginning was to bring our children through to adulthood feeling loved, valued, secure and prepared for life. It requires being sensitive and attentive to them and giving quality time. Today they are reproducing these values in their own families.
Our God-given calling is number four. After our priorities of God and our family came our calling to full-time ministry (for us this was our vocation also). We gave ourselves wholeheartedly to our calling but not at the expense of losing our marriage and children. Living in our God-given calling is essential but it is also vital that it is number four on our value system.
We are so grateful the Lord has honoured the value system He gave us, allowing so often for our own human failure. It has been that unmovable, non-negotiable rock that has held firm when all else around us seemed to be shaken. It is a wonderful thing to walk secure in God’s love and faithfulness.
(Today’s BIY written by Margaret McCracken)