Decision-Making and Priorities

-We all have a set of priorities and we all make decisions.

-The things you choose to do demonstrate what is important to you.

-When you choose one thing over another, you show that it has a higher priority.

Franklin Covey used this illustration to address the issue of priorities (check it out, it may look familiar to a similar story you may have read, but it's got a slightly different ending):

One day an expert was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration those students will never forget. As this man stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers he said, "Okay, time for a quiz."

Then he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouthed mason jar and sat it on a table in front of them. Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into a jar.

When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "is this jar full?" Everyone in the class said "Yes."

Then he said, "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and hook the car causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. Then he asked the group once more, "Is the jar full?

By this time the class was onto him. "Probably not," one of them answered. "Good!" he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and gravel. Once more he asked the question, "Is this jar full?"

"No!" the class shouted. Once again he said, "Good!" Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked at the class and asked, "What is the point of this illustration?"

One eager beaver raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things into it!"

"No," the speaker replied, "that's not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all."

-What are your "big rocks?" What SHOULD be your big rocks that may have been left out and you are trying (or want to try) to fit in?

-Always remember to invest in that which will last the longest!!

Credit: I got this from the Discipleship book we're using in a class at my church, but it definitely applies to everyone.