In crisis, we turn to God. But what if we put Him first?

OPINION:

Time. There is never enough of it.

Especially when it comes to the new year as we hit the ground running with busy families. Work, school, sports, extracurricular activities, visiting relatives, dinners out – all fight for a treasured space in our calendars. When we reboot our lives in the new year, we often consider what we should stop doing and what we should start doing. We evaluate how we want to spend our precious commodity of time.

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We ask “what truly is important to us?” That’s where we should spend our time. But I think the real question is not what, but who is truly important to us?

Recently, I got to answer that question up close and personal.

I received a call in the middle of my filled-to-the-brim work day asking me to come to the trauma center because my elderly 87-year-old dad fell and his prognosis was not good.

Time stood still. My calendar, full of seemingly important worldly tasks, faded away immediately. “Who was most important to me” filled my mind. I prayed out loud, “God, please let him be okay.”

Then I realized, God filled my mind almost automatically. He was my go-to. It was God who was most important. Only He could heal my beloved dad. My God, my Creator – He was worthy of my time. So I spent my precious time talking to Him in short pleas and sporadic questions in my 35-minute drive to the hospital.

It made me think: What if instead of clearing our lives instantly to make time for God in a crisis, we scheduled time with Him first in our calendar?

I love the Sunday school illustration that uses a large clear jar, big rocks, pebbles, and sand. The jar is your time. The rocks represent the important things in your life, the pebbles are the next important, and the sand is the not-so-important. If you put the sand in the jar first followed by the pebbles, the rocks will not fit. But if you reverse the order and put the rocks in first, then the pebbles, then the sand – it all fits!

The chaplain greeted my mom and I in the hospital waiting room. My dad was being scanned, monitored, and worked on by a team of doctors. A brain surgeon ducked into our private waiting room and told me they didn’t see any internal bleeding, what a relief to us! He was stabilized. Thank you, God!

As a kid, my dad taught me to always put God first. But now that I have my own family and my own rhythm in life, I have been caught up, like many families, in letting the calendar control me instead of vice versa. So how do we change this? How do we guide ourselves and our family to put the important who (God) first this year?

Simplicity is best, it just requires identifying and taking one step.

One step. Any family can do it. Wherever you are on the time-with-God-spectrum, whether your family has not yet spent time on spiritual things or if it’s your habit, you can always take one step in any of these three areas – prayer, Bible reading, and worship. The Bible says that God delights in spending time with you. 1 Chronicles 16:11 commands us to “Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!”

Ideas for your family’s one step can include: Praying together at dinner or bedtime, going to church regularly, reading a family devotional, reading the Bible, engaging in daily worship time, serving others by volunteering as a family, prioritizing unplugged family dinners and talking about God instead, turning your phone off for an hour in the evening and reading the Bible, or going on prayer walks with your family.

Your family is a gift from God and while time dragged on as we waited for my dad’s severe concussion symptoms to calm down and test results to come back, I was relieved to see my dad’s condition finally turned the corner about midnight. We hugged and laughed, we prayed together and thanked God for this miracle.

You see, my dad is on major blood thinners. He is not even allowed to use a razor because he could bleed to death. His doctors said his fall was a “fatal fall” and it was a miracle he had no internal bleeding. From this experience, I figured out my first step to get closer to God for the new year: Pray and thank God while driving in my car every mile I can. I began this step with my ride home from the hospital that night.

What will your one step be this year?

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Kori Pennypacker is the CEO of Bible2School, where she oversees the mission and speaks to businesses, churches, and community leaders on the topic of the importance of spiritual training for children in our communities nationwide. She has over 20 years of experience in children’s ministry and leadership.

Bible2School equips communities across the nation to provide free elective Bible classes to elementary school children DURING their public school day. Their vision is that every public school in the nation would have a dynamic Bible program taught during their school day as allowed by national released time court rulings.