Know Your Priorities In Life

Have you ever felt like the challenges of life stretched you beyond your capacity? Your job is asking you to work an insane amount of hours, and you oblige because, well, bills come every month and have to be paid, right? Stretch. On top of your work schedule, you maxed out your calendar with activities you gave your yes to. Stretch. A cry from your child in the other room lets you know that you might have clocked out of your nine to five, but your work as a parent never ends. Stretch. You have to serve dinner, clean the house, and you still have to fulfill the needs of your spouse as well. Stretched, stretched, and beyond stretched.

You can stretch a vessel only so far before it breaks. Being stretched so thin in life can cause you to be Imbalanceed with everything in your hand.

If this is you, let me encourage you to drop the plastic balls that can be dropped and continue to juggle the glass ones that can’t. 

God didn’t make us to do it all. Be free enough to release yourself from thinking that you do.

What all are you trying to juggle in your life right now? Are you trying to juggle motherhood, ministry, school, a second job? Certain things in our hands are glass balls. These are the most important things in our lives that can shatter on impact. Glass balls are things like:

• Our children.
• Our relationship with our spouse.
• Our relationship with Jesus.

If we get overwhelmed and stretched so thin that our hands get clumsy, we can quickly start to drop these glass balls that we hold. We don’t want to drop the glass balls, but we can let go of plastic ones that bounce right back when released. Some plastic balls could be:

• Certain chores you do all by yourself. 
• A second job.
• Certain ministry opportunities.

We all have plenty of glass and plastic balls in our lives that we are juggling consistently. We must know what season we are in and what the Lord needs from us in this season. If not, we may be trying to juggle balls we had in a previous season that aren’t needed in the current one. You and I can release them and pick them back up when the time is right.

If you are feeling overworked, overstretched, and overwhelmed, you very well could be dropping glass balls that can break into a thousand pieces. The beautiful thing about being in the hands of a loving Father is that he can mend anything that breaks. So don’t get discouraged if you have dropped glass balls. Commit the pieces into the hands of a Potter who can put them back together again. And when He does, allow his Spirit to reveal what balls take priority in this time of your life.

You don’t have to do it all. Knowing this should be encouraging and freeing all at the same time. You have to understand what the Lord requires from you and do those things well. The Lord has required us to be good stewards over what he has placed in our hands.

So release the urge to do it all. Release the things that aren’t a priority for you in this season. And embrace the grace of our Father. Once you do this, you’ll be able to juggle the balls that are a priority with the strength the Lord provides.

Application Questions

1. Do you know the difference between your glass balls and plastic balls? If not, what are some strategies you can use to help you start to classify plastic and glass balls?
2. Do you have a hard time releasing things that may be good but aren’t a priority in your current season? What could be the motivating factor that causes you to hold onto these activities?
3. Do you have a hard time embracing the things that God deems as a priority for your life? What could be your motivating factor for this behavior?