“I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.” Nehemiah 6:3

I am a multi-passionate person. In fact, I can get passionate about almost anything you throw at me. My students are often shocked about my passion for grammar, of all things. This can be a stumbling block for me because I see opportunities all around me. Most of those opportunities are good, godly, productive opportunities I can easily justify. I have to be careful what I agree to do, or I will sacrifice the best things on the altar of the good things.

Over the last year, God has been working on me to walk away from the opportunities the enemy has used to distract me from the most important things. I realized I had built my life around things that were good but should not have been a priority. As a result, I had built walls instead of healing or building relationships. I had surrendered my authority in order to keep the peace. I had seen my children as a hindrance to my work instead of my most important work (though I never would have said that out loud).

How do we tell the difference between what is good and what is best? There are many books written on this subject, so I will not attempt to answer this question comprehensively. But there are things we don’t need to pray about or agonize over because Scripture clearly tells us what to do.

• You are God’s child, and He expects you to act like it. Your relationship with your Heavenly Father should never be sacrificed for your job, your workout, your vacation, your family.
• Only you can be your husband’s wife. If you are married at this time, God has given you a very clear role that only you can fill. It should be your priority.
• Only you can be your children’s momma. If you have children, young or grown, it is a divine assignment for only you. Do not mistake this divine assignment for a distraction.

Everything else in your life needs to be weighed against these three positions.

In our day-to-day grind, it can be difficult to discern what is best and what is urgent, and we often sacrifice the important for the urgent. We would do well to take the time to list everything on our plate and bring those things to the Lord, asking for wisdom. I have found when I’m thinking about stepping back from a commitment, God gives me peace or makes me restless. Restlessness means I’m headed in the wrong direction.

I’ll leave you with this reminder from Andy Stanley’s book Visioneering:

Don’t spend your time; invest it.