My Priorities

Lately I have been asking God to show me, again, what my priorities are to be. Back in the spring of 2003, God showed me what He wants my priorities to be. He showed me lots of things I can do, practical ways I can live out those priorities. I found the papers that I wrote all of that information on and I want to share it with you. God has answered my recent prayers by showing me that those priorities are still the same as they were in 2003. I just need to refresh my memory!

1. God
2. My Husband
3. My children
4. My Home
5. The Church, God's People

I am in there somewhere, too. I have always felt guilty for making myself first, basically, but just yesterday I realized that taking care of myself is taking care of dh and my children. They need me to be healthy, fit, and rested so I can take care of them. So, I will list myself between God and Dh.

Here are the practical ways God showed me that I can make these priorities real in my day-to-day life.

God
~Prayer
~Bible reading
~Bible study
~Worshiping God with my family weekly with other believers
Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, Wednesday nights

Myself
~Physical needs
sleep
exercise
rest (different than sleep!!)
supplements (right now I am taking a multivitamin and flax oil)
my appearance- keep my hair cute, my makeup updated, smell pretty, etc. (these things are for my own confidence and for dh's benefit as well. He always appreciates it when I keep my appearance nice, and when I smell pretty. hee hee)

DH
~set aside a time just for him, to talk with him, and listen to him (When I wrote these things, we had 5 children, ages 9 and under. It was really hard to find time to talk with him. Now that we have 7 children, it is even harder, so this is something I need to work on)
~prepare meals: get up early and make breakfast for him, pack hi lunch and snacks for work
~have dinner ready or in process when he gets home from work
~prepare his clothes for work
make sure his "basics" are clean (undershirts, etc.)
make sure his work clothes get taken to the cleaners on time (instead of sitting in a bag in the van for weeks)
lay his clothes out for him at night (I figured out that my dh doesn't work this way, he wants to pick out his own clothes. i am thankful for this because i have enough people to pick out clothes for!)
~ask him if there are errands he needs me to run, phone calls he needs me to make, etc.
~anything I can do to help him (finances, making sure kids do their jobs at home, our house-building project, making extra money to pay off our debt)

My Children
~Teach them about God and His Word
Read the Bible with them
Pray with them, together and individually
Take them to church as a family
Help them memorize scripture
~Care for them physically
meals, snacks, drinks
clothing
baths
exercise
laundry
well child checkups
vitamins
organize their time
~Spend time with them
walks
bike rides
go to the park
play outside with them
read to them
~Train them
Brother-Offended Chart (www.doorposts.com)
If-Then Chart
Blessing Chart
Training Time
answer door
answer phone
set table
make bed
clean zone
clean room
clean bathroom
prepare simple meals
fold laundry
table manners
simple courtesies (shake hands and speak up when meeting someone, look others in the eye when they are speaking to you, etc.)
~Educate them (when I wrote this, we were homeschooling all of them. This coming school year, we will be home educating our 13 year old and the 9, 7, 7, and 4 year olds will be in school)
basics
history
science
manners
home economics
arts and crafts
memorization
Reading Club (my good friend, Jill, had a club for reading that she did with my 2 oldest kids and her kids. We did this for about a year. The kids loved it and learned so much!)
Extra stuff like soccer, swimming lessons, etc.

I can't find the stuff I wrote about my home and the church. But I will try to remember it.

My Home
~Keep it clean
~Keep it organized
~Decorate
~Make our home a place that is relaxing, not tense or stressful (messy areas are stressful to me and everyone else in the house
~Make our home welcoming to others

The Church/Family
~be involved in our home congregation
~give regularly of the money God gives us
~invite others into our home
~help others when we can, financially and physically
~be an example of Christ
~keep in touch with our family
~get together with family as much as possible

God also broke all of these things into daily, weekly, monthly and yearly things I can do to live out the priorities He has given me. I promise you these things were given to me by God. That day in the spring of 2003 my pen just flew across the paper as I wrote all of these things down. It was like He was just pouring this stuff out through me. I know some of you will understand this and others will think I am nuts. I am okay with that. Some of you probably already think I am nuts.

Some of the daily stuff is a repeat of the stuff I have already written. But I am a list person and God knows that so he broke this down into a list for me. And he made it all very simple to understand because He knows I get little sleep. It has been years since I slept through the night so things have to be simple for me to be able to stick to it. One day I will not be sleep-deprived and I will be able to do complicated things once again. : )

Daily

• God

• pray
• read one chapter of the Bible
• study His Word

• My Husband
• prepare meals
• have dinner ready when he gets home
• have his clothes clean and ironed, if necessary
• pick up his clothes if he leaves them on the floor
  

• Children
• teach them about the Lord and His Word
• read the Bible to them
• pray with them, at meals, at bedtime
• work on scripture memorization together

• care for them physically
• 3 meals
• 2 snacks
• lots of water
• clothes- help little ones get dressed, help others pick out their clothes if we will be leaving the house (the reason God had to tell me this is because a lot of days my little ones will stay in their pjs until daddy gets home and my older boys will go out in public in their play clothes)
• make sure they get fresh air, sunshine, and exercise
  
• baths- give little ones a bath everyday and make sure the older ones take a shower everyday (my kids are always pretty clean, but this is just a good reminder to do this everyday. I get busy with other things, and the toddler may not get a bath for 3 days. not pretty.)
• laundry- assign, and stick to, a laundry schedule
• vitamins at breakfast

• read to them

• Train them
• go to charts with them as needed
• character training
• discipline as needed- do not let this go
  

• My Home
• clean one room each day
• make sure the kids do their jobs -inspect the jobs
• be consistent with morning and evening routines
• be consistent with laundry schedule

Weekly

• God
• go to church with my family
  

• DH
• make sure the lawn gets mowed (dd13's job now)
• weed eat the lawn so he doesn't have to do it on Saturday
• make sure trash gets taken out on trash days
• Friday night date at home (this is FUN! we give the kids their dinner early, like hot dogs and chips at 5, then we put a TV in one of their rooms and let them watch a movie, usually something they haven't seen before or one of their favorites, and then we have a special dinner with just the two of us. It is really a great thing to do. Every Friday may be pushing it, but I think we could do this once a month)

• Children
• do something fun at least once a week- park, walk, swimming, bike ride, play in the sprinkler, etc.
• have a weekly training time- teach them how to do things like answer the phone, set the table, etc.

• Home
• declutter once a week
• keep yard nice and neat
• Scentsational book- work on making our home beautiful and efficient
• work on organizing our stuff
  

• The Church/Family
• Is there someone I can help this week? (a meal, a card, etc.) Can the kids do this with me?
  

Monthly

• DH
• see what clothes he needs, make sure he gets them
• make his hair appt. ( I have learned that I have to do this or it will not get done!)
• make sure he gets the money to pay his gym membership
• take care of the finances so he doesn't' have to worry about it
  

• Children
• plan meals
  
• clothing inventory- what do we need to buy/throw away/give away?
• hair cuts
• reevaluate how we are managing our time
• plan school
  
• daily
• weekly
• what school supplies/curriculum do we need to buy this month?

• Home
• work on big to do list for house, garage, and yard

• The Church/Family
• Family
• keep in touch with extended family members (write notes, send email, send pictures, call them)

Yearly

• God
• have a weekend away for spiritual and physical refreshment
  

• DH
• have a weekend alone with him 2x a year (every other quarter)

• Children
• annual well-child visits
• dental checkups 2x a year (this is very hard for me to keep up with. I get them there once a year, but not two)
• try to go on a vacation once a year
  
• annual celebrations and traditions
  
• birthdays
• Thanksgiving
• Christmas
• Valentine's Day
• Easter
• July Fourth

That's it! Those are the ideas I was given a few years ago. Those things still apply to my life today, even with 2 more children added to our family. I am going to look at these ideas and see what I need to focus on right now.

If you stuck with me through that post, you're a trooper!!