Weekly Impressions - Priorities

You may have noticed that I’ve taken a week-long hiatus from my blog.  We’ve been busy!  My book finally “hit the presses” on December 13th, and is available for purchase now!  (Just a little excited... and thank you so much for your support!)  I’ve also gotten my own site up and running:  JenariSkye.com.  Besides these endeavors, I’ve been working to finish Christmas gifts, perform my prescribed physical therapy exercises, and - most importantly - to prioritize my quiet time with God.

It is interesting to me that my quiet time has needed to be separate from - or at least an addition to - writing my blog entries.  In the past, when using a devotional, it was no problem to incorporate it into my quiet times.  However, in writing my own daily devotionals, I find that I need to be purposeful to be washed with the water of the Word (the Bible), to allude to a passage in Ephesians 5:26.  Without it, my focus can easily stray in my own thoughts and ideas.  Thus I have found it tantamount to prioritize a quiet time of reading my Bible, and of praying - without distraction - in God’s presence.

It has been a refreshing time, and a discipline that I will continue.  Finding time for it isn’t always easy, which is why I have begun to question that way of thinking.  Rather than “finding time” for my quiet time, it should be my top priority.  I should be “finding time” for my blog, not for my quiet time.  If one thing is to remain steadfast, it should be my quiet time.  This is not to say that I won’t ever miss a quiet time, or even that God won’t orchestrate something that may displace it on occasion.  It is to say that, so far as I’m concerned, it is to be a main priority.

That having been said, it is also important that I don’t lose sight of why that’s a priority.  It is a priority because I need to spend time with my Savior, and to continue to wash myself of this world that isn’t my home.  To refocus.  To serve Christ and keep Him first.  

There may be times when my husband needs me during the time that I have set aside for my quiet time.  Ideally, he will prioritize my quiet time with God as much as you do, but sometimes my husband and I may be in the middle of a conversation that really should be finished.  We have to decide whether it would be a better service of God for us to pause and me to have my quiet time, or to continue - and perhaps I’ll just read a little Scripture after our conversation before going to bed.

It’s all too easy for me to let my priorities become an end in and of themselves.  I must remember that ultimately, all things are for His glory.