Priorities

What’s important to you? It sounds like a simple question right? Usual answers include friends, family, and school. Well, before you answer so fast, think about what’s really important to you. Friends, family, and school may be the "correct" answers, but usually when you take time to examine what’s really important in your life, you realize that you don’t spend that much time on the things that you should.

Remember the old saying "Actions speak louder than words?" Well, in many cases it’s true. You might tell your family that they are the most important thing to you, but how much time do you actually spend talking to them, asking them what’s new in their life? When was the last time you offered to help your little brother or sister with their homework or offered to help your parents cook dinner?

A better question than what’s important to you, is, what’s preeminent in your life? What does that even mean? Preeminent means superior, or above and before everything else. Ask yourself…………what do you put above everything else? If you play sports maybe your life revolves around practices and games. Maybe you put music above all else. That could mean you spend hours playing the guitar, or you barricade yourself in your room for hours each night listening to your favorite songs on your Ipod. You might be so obsessed with the latest gossip that you are on your cell phone the minute school ends, until bedtime, only taking a break for dinner. Are you inconvenienced when your parents ask you to do one of your usual chores, like helping clean up dinner, because it will take away from your precious Play Station time?

After you examine what you’re putting first in your life, next it’s time to ask yourself if that’s the way it should be? Is your Ipod more important than your family? If you disappeared tomorrow how would people remember you? Would you be remembered as someone that was kind, caring, spent time with their friends and family, and cared about getting good grades? The way people perceive you is through your actions, so take a few extra minutes today to spend time with someone that you care about. Show them that they are preeminent in your life. Remember that through your actions you are telling the world what’s important to you. Maybe you need to change them.