Priorities

“Where you deposit your treasure, that is where your thoughts will turn to—and your heart will long to be there also.” (Luke 12:34 TPT)

Prioritizing is the process of ranking everything around you in order of importance and acting upon it. Given two choices that both matter, we give one more preference over the other based on our value system. How we decide to spend our time, money, and energy shows our priorities. Even if we say one thing is more valuable than another, our choices may reflect otherwise. 

What shapes a person’s priorities? 

What you find valuable about your identity often influences your priorities. If you see yourself as worthy because you belong to a certain group or have certain attributes, you may try to maintain these aspects at all cost. For example, if you think you are relevant because you are skinny, intelligent, patriotic, Christian, hard-working, rich, White, Black, Asian, educated, athletic, etc.--you are likely to prioritize activities that uphold that value system. If you see yourself as empathetic, compassionate, humble, kind, honest, etc.--but you don’t think these characteristics are respected--you may assign less importance to these ideals. Ultimately, whatever you treasure, that is where your thoughts will turn to--and your heart will long to be there also.