First Things First

Set priorities for your goals. A major part of successful living lies in the ability to put first things first. Indeed, the reason most major goals are not achieved is that we spend our time doing second things first. (Robert J. McKain)

The principle of first things first is a very common thought. I will risk being called a nitpicker, as I make a simple illustration of putting first things first. You just finished shopping at Wal-Mart, buying much frozen food. You have to drive home, approximately a ten-mile trip. The temperature is near 100 degrees. You get home and unload the frozen food and put it on the counter. You leave the frozen food on the counter while you make a non-emergency telephone call to a friend. No, no! First things first! You put away the frozen food, and then, you make a telephone call.

Do we “spend our time doing second things first”? I love my family, friends, brethren and my fellow man. I try very hard to practice the Golden Rule. “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31). Yet, when all is said and done, my greatest responsibility, as I put first things first, is to protect and watch out for my soul. “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24).

First Things First: For One Not a Christian

Be obedient unto our God. “But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women” (Acts 8:12). The New Testament of Jesus Christ answers the question, “What shall I do to be saved?”

First Things First: For a Child of God

Be faithful unto death. “…be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” (Revelation 2:10); “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2).