I hope the article on Direct Sales Priorities that Produce was helpful as you begin planning your fall calendar. Without priorities, we are just wandering aimlessly – being very busy, but not knowing what we are being busy about or why.
Family and business priorities are important to establish, honor and protect. Your personal priorities are as important, though most women tend to downplay their personal priorities – especially to focus on their children. Still, our personal health and well-being need to be attended to on some priority basis if we are to be of help to others. You can’t run a car when the gas tank is on empty, and too often we women try to do just that in our personal lives. We must put ourselves on the schedule somewhere, and it can’t always be last.
While it does take some juggling and balancing to establish all the priorities in your life – family, job, business, self – there is one priority that will never change – God. He is your #1 priority.
Now, maybe you haven’t always thought about God that way. Maybe for you He is just for Sunday mornings, or for weddings, or for funerals. Maybe God hasn’t been on your schedule in a long time – maybe since your childhood, or maybe not really ever. Well, you’ve been on God’s schedule, even if He hasn’t been on yours. You’ve been on His schedule and on His heart and on His mind – every moment of every day that you have been alive, and even before. Awake or asleep, He is thinking of you, and acting on your behalf, because God never sleeps or slumbers. It doesn’t even matter if you believe in Him. He believes in you. He loves you more than anyone ever can, because He’s God. He thought of you. He made you. He breathed life in you. He planned your parents, your family, your life.
Then, He did the most amazing thing – after He gave you all that, He gave you free will. He gave you the ability and the freedom to make choices with your life. And you’ve been making choices with your life, all your life. So, how’s that working out for you so far?
Oh, don’t worry, God isn’t surprised by the choices you’ve made – some good, but some pretty bad. God planned for that, too – remember He loves you. He knew you would make mistakes – some accidently, some purposefully. All are called sin. God knew that because of your mistakes – your sins – you would need help, big-time help. You see, no sinner can enter God’s perfect heaven when they die. And by the way, you will die one day and then you will go to live for eternity – but you get to choose where – Heaven or hell. Again another choice you get to make. But this choice has eternal consequences so you’ll want to choose wisely.
Remember that “big-time help” I mentioned? It is Jesus, God’s Son. The only way you, a sinner, can get into God’s perfect Heaven is with Jesus Christ as your Savior. God sent His only Son Jesus to this earth as a baby, who grew to become a man – the only perfect, sinless person ever on earth. Jesus showed and taught that the only way to Heaven was to believe that He is God’s Son. Many people put their faith in Jesus and believed – but many did not believe. They got angry, trumped up false charges, and crucified Jesus on a cross. Here’s the “big-time help” part – three days after Jesus died, and was buried, He arose! Jesus arose from the grave, fully alive with the scars from His crucifixion to prove it. Hundreds saw Him, spoke with Him, learned from Him.
Then the time came for Jesus to go back to Heaven, to rejoin God, where He is to this day. You see, Jesus was never guilty of any sin nor mistake. He didn’t deserve death on the cross. Jesus went willingly to die on the cross because that was God’s plan – the only way to pay for your sins was by Jesus’ blood. He paid the price. He took your punishment. And if you believe that Jesus did this for you and if you accept Him as your personal Savior, that choice will see your eternity in Heaven one day. And when you realize that God loves you so much that He sent His son to die for you to pay for your sins, then you will make God your #1 priority.
How do I know this? Because I’ve made choices in my life, too. The most important one was when I accepted Jesus as my Savior. If you have made that choice in your life, praise God! If not, it’s decision time.
“For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved… For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:9-10, 13
