Charting Our Families Priorities
Every family has their unique passions and schedules, often rooted in their values, for how we invest our time, energy, affections, and money, frequently reveal the depths of our hearts. These investments shape our family's priorities, but praise God, this is something that can be reshaped, redeemed, and restored.
While there's an endless list of potential priorities we could evaluate, let us look at 5 and consider where they might rank on our family's priority list:
(1) ENTERTAINMENT: When entertainment is elevated as a high priority, families find themselves investing a majority of their time watching TV & Netflix, playing games on tablets, and checking social media on smart phones. Since we live in a culture that over-values distractions and entertainment, families must be vigilant in fighting this temptation, lest entertainment becomes an idol in the home.
(2) WORK & SCHOOL: Many spend nearly half of their awake hours each week at work or working from home. For many families, this can include school and homework as well. The sheer amount of time given to these each week naturally elevates work and school as a high priority for most families. These are opportunities given by the Lord and used by the Lord to provide for us. However, they should not capture the heart of our family, or take so much time that we find it impossible to invest in the spiritual health of our home. Let us avoid the two extremes of the workaholic and of laziness, and let us find ways to enjoy the Gospel and glorify God through our work and studies.
(3) FINANCES: When finances captivate our hearts, they drive our decisions. We invest our time and energy in that which will bring the greatest economic stability to our family, and we often judge the health of our home by the number in our bank account. When finances receive an inappropriately high priority, they can prevent us from enjoying the freedom of simplicity while tempting us to trust more in our paycheck and retirement than in the provision of the Lord. One way to evaluate whether or not finances are driving your family is to consider the level of anxiety that comes from bills and a low bank account, and the level of peace that is brought by financial security, a strong bank account, or a raise. This gets to the heart of the question: In whom do we depend?
(4) FAMILY TIME: Family time is a blessing and should be a priority. This value can often have a sweet overlap with spiritual health as our family time might consist of serving together, family mission trips, family devotions, family spiritual retreats, and family Sabbath day rests. On the other hand, we can be tempted to treat family time as an idol if we find ourselves consistently discontent with any day that is not a holiday, weekend, or vacation. We can pervert the gift of family by elevating family above God, spending hours together at sporting events and movies, but never spending time together in worship or with the church.
(5) SPIRITUAL HEALTH: When we value spiritual health in the home, we find ourselves investing in things like prayer, family devotions, discipleship & worship. We might even be intentional enough to initiate family retreats and Sabbath day rests. This reflects a Gospel-driven home that seeks to be a Great Commandment family that loves God and loves their neighbors, and a Great Commission family that makes disciples of the nations and serves together in their community and local church family. Finally, this priority also leads families to focus on spiritual leadership, grace-based parenting, forgiveness, and restoration--all rooted in enjoying the Gospel of Jesus Christ.