Priorities & Planning for a New School Year
We are embarking on a new school year, which means reviewing our priorities and prayerfully arranging our schedules. Families are asking how to set priorities so they can press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. As we set family goals and develop our schedules, these are the three priorities we must keep in mind.
Top Three Priorities
1. Be Person Centered
This means we have placed Jesus Christ at the center of our lives. We allow Him to live in and through us to do the will of the Father. Without Jesus at the center we cannot even desire to do the will of the Father. Jesus gives us the freedom to choose and to willingly offer our freedom unto God as a pleasing sacrifice to be used for His glory, just as Christ did as He walked this earth as a man. Centered in the Person of Christ, we find Jesus meets our deepest needs and provides security and significance in Him.
This priority will develop you into a credible messenger of God’s love to your children.
2. Be Principle Governed
This means we govern our relationships by God’s Word. All relationships are governed by principles. God has taught us how to love through the principles contained in His commands. Principles are God’s universal cause-and-effect sequences that are true throughout all eternity and applicable at all times in all places. They differ from values in that values are subjective and may or may not be based on principles. The closer our values align with God’s principles the straighter will be our paths. God gave Adam and Eve His command and blessing for a couple, He gave Israel the 10 commandments to govern their nation, and He gave all of us the commands of Christ to govern every sphere of life. God balances His truth with equal and opposite principles such as law and grace. Acting on principle is never an either/ or choice but a both/and action to apply with God’s wisdom. We need to be Person (Christ) Centered to have the wisdom to apply His commands.
This priority will turn your home into a safe, joy-filled ministry center.
3. Be Purpose Motivated
We experience God’s energy and power as we discern His purpose for our lives and understand that we are God’s workmanship created for good works. (See Ephesians 2:10, Titus 2:14.) Our goal is to hit the mark for which God as made us by developing the our full potential in spirit, soul, mind and strength.
This priority will help you incrementally release your children into God’s purposes for their lives.
When we are Person-centered and principle-governed we will be able to do God’s will, in God’s way, within God’s timing because we are supplied with His resources to bless the nations.
To go deeper read the article Noble Planning Part 1: Person, Principle, and Purpose
Posted by Chris Hogan on Wednesday, August 22, 2007 at 10:54 AM
