Order indicates priority

We've been attending church pretty regularly for a few months now and before that it was about 8 months of attending when it was convenient. I'm certainly not going to talk about religion on this blog because I have my opinions and I know other people have completely different ones but I will say that we have really enjoyed these last few months of committing a couple hours a week to attending church service. Farrah goes to the preschool while we are there. She hates it when we drop her off but she has such a good time and it's fun to go pick her up and watch her from the door playing with all the other kids until she notices us and comes running over.

Our pastor was recently doing a series entitled "Who's on first." Basically speaking on all of the many priorities we have in our lives and trying to achieve "balance." I recently heard someone say that there is no such thing as "balance." But while you may not ever be able to achieve balance, you can achieve harmony. I think I agree with that. Even someone like me who works from home so that I can have "balance" finds herself flustered from time to time.
Anyhoo back to the series at church. One of the things that he said that really stuck out to me was "Order indicates priority." That was one of those "ooooh.... write that down" moments. I thought about it for quite a while. He suggested the reason why we attend church on Sunday mornings is so we can give our first hours of the week to God. Another thing he said was that you can say what your priorities are all day long, but if I followed you around all day and saw what you spent most of your time on and your money on I'd be able to tell what really matters to you. Ughhhh... thoughts started racing through my head about how I spend my days. I know I'm not perfect but I do feel like I'm a pretty kick ass mom, wife, friend, worker, etc..... however I started to think about ways I could improve.

Order indicates priority.

I get up early every morning and make my coffee and head down to the computer to check my facebook, blog updates, people.com... you know, the necessary stuff. If order indicates priority, I'm not starting off my date with much indication of what truly matters to me. So I've started making some small changes and I already feel better. First thing I do when my alarm goes off is spend about 10 minutes praying.... something I've never done. I would show up to church, hear about how people pray, think "oh that's nice," but never do it for myself. After I pray I come downstairs and do 10 minutes of exercise. I'm sure you're laughing right now but I have been so bad about exercising since before I got pregnant with Farrah so 10 minutes a day is a whole lot more than I've done in quite a while. After I'm done with those things, I make my coffee and surf the web until baby girl wakes up. I've been trying to be more "present" with her when I'm present. I somehow inherited a trait from my mother that requires me to be doing something at all times. I don't like to just sit. So just sitting with Farrah and watching her play without accomplishing anything else at the same time has been difficult. But dishes aren't my priority, returning emails aren't my priority. She is.

I know not everyone believes in God like I do, but in my case, I feel like I'm relaying to God what's important to me. In your case, it might just make you feel really good that you started off your day with some things that really matter.

Baby girl is just waking up. I'm off to snuggle with her..... my priority.