Like many people, prioritizing comes as a challenge to me.  Or maybe it is just laziness. I am not sure. Or maybe laziness is the reason I do not prioritize.

Here is what I mean, I can go days or weeks without straightening, cleaning, or organizing the things that I need to. And then whenever I finally get around to it, I go overboard. I spend too much time on it. I stay up too late, and I neglect other responsibilities. I should have just straightened sooner.

Or like with March Madness. This coming Thursday there will be 32 two-hour basketball games on TV. I will watch so many of them. As a husband and father, if I watch that much b-ball then I will probably be neglecting some things and then my priorities are out of focus.

I know what I want to prioritize, and I long to get better at it.

One of my top priorities is good, focused, quality, nothing-gets-in-the-way time with my boys. Like this weekend when the weather was great, I took JJ and Eli for a walk. We stopped by the creek. They asked if we could get close. So we did. I assured them it was too cold still to get in. JJ and I went swimming in the creek a lot last year. Eli was too small. So time at the creek is new to Eli. They love skipping rocks. So we did that for a while. Then we left and kept walking to the gas station. They wanted cookies and M&Ms. I bought both. They had eaten all the cookies and most of the M&Ms by the time I had paid.

Or like when I woke up the other morning and those two were shooting basketball in their bedroom.  As I went to see them, JJ asked “Do you want to play basketball with us?” Thats a dream come true to me. I dropped my Bible Studying immediately and went to shoot ball with them.

Or like Sunday afternoon when they wanted to play in the yard. I was teaching JJ to hit a pitch and Eli to hit off the Tee. The ground was wet from all the rain recently. When Eli would fall, it surprised him because it was the first time he ever had wet, dirty, grass on his hands. What a moment!

Or like the walk back from the store when I am teaching the boys one of my favorite Bible verses: Proverbs 1:7.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

JJ and I have been working on memorizing that one. They are kinda some bigger words for JJ, but he is slowly getting it.

My priority is for my sons to know how much I love God and them. I pray that they would really believe Proverbs 1:7. But also I pray that they would really see and understand that I really believe Proverbs 1:7.

May God continue to mold me into a Dad who fears the Lord, possesses knowledge, and does not despise instruction. And may I more and more prioritize my sons.

If you like a good story, YOU WILL LOVE THIS ONE.

This is a story of a young boy in Philadelphia whose mother is from Africa. He was picked on and beaten up. Yet he stood up for others.

Click here to read it.  It is written by Rick Reilly for ESPN.

Kevin DeYoung’s review of Rob Bell’s new book Love Wins came out yesterday. You can read it here.

While many men and women have countless opinions on countless subjects, God has already spoken. God speaks for himself. His Word is true. And I believe that. I form my views, opinions, and beliefs based on what I read from God in the Bible. Here are two quotes I like from DeYoung’s review.

“The good news is that in love God sent his Son to live for our lives and die for our deaths, suffering the God-forsakenness we deserved so that we might call God our God and we who trust in Christ might be his children.”

“Look at God’s people in the garden, then kicked out of the garden; God’s people in the promised land, then booted out of the promised land; God’s people in the New Jerusalem, then the wicked and unbelieving locked outside the New Jerusalem. Trace this story from tabernacle to temple through the incarnation and Pentecost and the coming down of the new heaven and new earth and you will see that the Bible’s story is about how a holy God can possibly dwell among an unholy people. The good news of this story is not that God loves everybody everywhere and you just need to find Christ in the rocks all around you. The good news is that God over and over makes a way for his unholy people to dwell in his holy presence, and that all these ways were pointing to the one Way, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”