We were discussing this verse the other day, and it really struck home. Life is busy, and there are always so many things to capture our attention. And while there is nothing wrong with doing our jobs, fulfilling our responsibilities, or even enjoying the lovely things in this world, if we get so caught up in it that we’re not remembering that this world is not all that there is, then something is wrong.
I remember one time hearing someone talk about keeping a proper balance between what is urgent and what is important. Some things are both important and urgent. If you’re getting married in 10 minutes, that is important, and it’s about to happen right now, so it is urgent.
Some things are urgent, but may not be important. When someone knocks on your door, you don’t think to yourself, “Oh, I’ll answer the door sometime later this week.” It is something to be taken care of immediately. It may or may not be important (maybe it’s just a salesman), but it goes in the urgent category.
Other things, like reading to your kids or exercising, are things that we may recognize as important, but may not feel so urgent, because they are things that could be done at any time you choose. It takes a conscious choice to set aside time to do them, and you do, because you recognize its importance. But it rarely feels “urgent”.
But focusing on the eternal things is what is the most important, although it rarely feels urgent. And that is why this verse is such an important reminder to have the proper priorities. By contrast, this whole life can feel urgent – it is happening now. But it won’t last forever, and all the things of this earth that we were seeking won’t be important.
This is something I need to be reminded of daily. So I made the above printable, to hang and remind myself to “seek the things above”. (You can click on the image to go to the printable file.)
What are your thoughts?
What verses help you keep your focus?
Leave a comment below! :)
Well, this past week was week one of my 
I wasn’t sure how long it would take to find different items – the hook I thought might be one of the hardest items to find, but it was actually what she found first. (She’s being a “scary pirate” there with her hook on the left). The sword was a little harder to find, but not too difficult. Once she had those, she didn’t want to part with them!
Finding the eye patch was one of the most difficult things on the list, because since it is February, there aren’t any green leaves left, and most of the leaves and down, crumpled and just not good eye-patch material. But when she found this leaf she was SO excited to get to wear it! It was a fun little “mini-craft” to make it. Poke two little holes in the leaf, not too close to the edge of the leaf, and preferably the cut should be parallel to the edge of the leaf, not perpendicular (these two things will help prevent the ribbon just ripping out through the edge of the leaf). Then simply thread a ribbon through each hole, loop back the doubled ribbon and tie at the back of the head. Simple, but a pretty effective eye patch!
This was one of my favorite quotes of the day – she really got in the spirit of the hunt, and as she stepped on some gravel she exclaimed, “Oh no! I think I stepped on some jewels!” Simple things can be so precious in the eyes of a child.
The one thing from the list we couldn’t really find was berries for pearls, because none were growing this time of year. But she found some of these Sweetgum seed pods, and used those instead. Here she is holding all her treasures right before “burying” them.
After scouting out some options, she finally found a place she wanted to hide her treasures. It was in a concrete drainage pipe – you can see it a little bit behind her in the photo. She has her two sticks which she made into an X and placed on top – she loved having this secret hiding place for her treasures with the secret symbol on top.
