In our family, the Christmas season has always been an important family celebration. Starting with our original core of Mom’s parents, Mom & Dad, my older brother and sister and myself, this tradition of family gathering has been in place every year of my existence on planet earth. Although my grandparents, Dad, and my brother-in-law Barry have since been promoted to heaven, the rest of us (now totaling 21) which encompasses four generations, still try to gather together at some point during the Christmas holidays. Though scattered across 5 states, the logistics is not easy, but we manage it because we make it a priority.

In our life journey we all have a multitude of options and different choices to make. In summarizing our discussions so far, we have stated that a core critical metric is that we should be wise in all our decision-making. We are where we are today based on the decisions that we’ve made along the way. A former Navy commanding officer I once had used to give this sage advice to sailors who had gotten themselves into trouble, “Life is tough. It’s even tougher when you’re stupid.” As we exist in our Current State of the present, we need to prepare ourselves to avoid carelessness and stupidity and make good choices in every decision that we make.

For our second salient point, we stated that strategically, we need to have an end goal or objective. We discussed this in the previous blog. In our life journey we must begin with the end in mind knowing that our purpose here on earth is to glorify God and the best return on our most valuable investment (our lives) is to align our decisions with that purpose. This defines for us our Future State…a highway to Heaven.

This leads us to our third “P” of Priority. We have prepared ourselves for each day (Current State), guided by the knowledge of our purpose (Future State). Now, how do we prioritize all these choices and decisions that we have make to ensure we successfully get to where we are going (Transition State)? With all the people, places, and things clamoring for our attention, how do we separate the truly important from the loud din of the urgent, or the siren call of the indulgent?

Put first things first.

For our initial illustration, let’s use a building analogy. For every building, the first and most important stone laid is called the cornerstone. Each subsequent stone is then laid according the placement and alignment of this first stone, the cornerstone. if you’re not much of a builder, but have put up wallpaper, the concept is the same as the first piece of wallpaper is most important. Mess that up and you end up with well…a mess.

In our life and within the treasures of our heart, every person has a cornerstone. It is whatever is most important to you. Some people may not consciously know what their cornerstone is, but it still exists. Now, take a moment and determine your cornerstone. What is most important to you?

This is not a superficial question and requires some thought. What do you cherish most in your heart? What is numero uno? What should you cherish and have as number one in your heart?

Fortunately for us, the Bible give us the answer. It always does. In His “Sermon on the Mount” (Matthew 5 – 7) Jesus is speaking with the crowd about the challenges of daily life and the art of decision-making. He commented on the emphasis of our concerns—our ongoing focus of what we shall eat and what clothes to wear. Jesus reminded us that our Heavenly Father knows we need all these things. Then, He prioritized our life decisions by advising us to seek God’s Kingdom first and His righteousness and all these things (that we need) will be added or provided to us.

Discovering or seeking God’s Kingdom is not something you put on a bucket list of “To Dos”…see the Grand Canyon, get a dog, make a million dollars, and seek God’s Kingdom. It’s also not just the first thing we do as if to get it out of the way so we can focus on other things. It is the overriding mindset and the directing motivation that we must possess for every decision we make. It sits atop the merit throne as we weigh out the pros and cons; it has the highest priority on our list of considerations when making a decision. To be successful, we need to make wise decisions, understanding that our purpose is to glorify God and our end objective is to live and reign with Christ in heaven. Therefore, we need to have a Kingdom of God perspective throughout our entire life journey. We seek God’s Kingdom first in all that we do.

Jesus punctuated this point with two quick parables of the kingdom of heaven. One was a man who discovered a treasure buried in a field and another was a pearl merchant who discovered a great pearl. In both cases they sold all that they had to obtain their discovery. The Kingdom of God is worth all that you have, and it becomes your guiding priority in all that you do.

If you recall “The Big IFs” blog, we pondered the question that “If there is a God and if He offers us a future eternal life, and if what we say, think, do, and believe in this life somehow affects our status in our next (eternal) life, then how should we live our life?” Logically, then we must align whatever we say, think, do, and believe with what our Creator values and desires us to say, think, do, and believe. This is the great win-win as it’s the best way for us to live and maximizes God’s glory.

The Bible teaches us that if we lack wisdom, we should ask for it (James 1:5). We should pray daily for wisdom and to help us learn how to prioritize our life and our decisions. We should specifically pray and ask God, “…to help us see the world as He sees the world.” Imagine having the clarity to see our surroundings through God’s eyes! What better perspective could we have to navigate our journey and direct all that we say, think, do, and believe?

Consider another parable of Jesus commonly referred to as the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). In it a man is robbed and beaten and left on the side of the road. Both a priest and a Levite passed him by as whatever they considered their agenda or schedule to be, it was a greater priority than helping this man. A Samaritan, seeing the world how God sees, saw the man, took compassion on him and rendered assistance. He possessed a “seeking God’s Kingdom first” perspective.

We all have jobs to do, deadlines to make, relationships to maintain, family to support, and bills to pay. God knows these things. As part of your daily Preparation where prayer is the most important part of your armor, ask God for wisdom to see the world as He sees. Not only will this wisdom assist you in prioritizing your daily decisions, it will provide you a Kingdom of God perspective, and that kind of viewpoint is out of this world!