Value Adjustment
April 26th, 2006
Brett Gilchrist
And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Deuteronomy 6:6-7
To accomplish what God has commanded in these verses requires focus and discipline, a determination that God and his word are valuable and to be valued. If I step back and look at this command, it makes perfect sense. God has spoken to me and he wants me to remember what he has said, he wants his word to become so ingrained in my mind that it bears fruit in my heart. He wants me to commit myself to making sure my children know him and his word. The next generation should experience the blessing of knowing God as I have.
But why is this so difficult to do? Everything, all day long, seems to crowd this simple command to the edges of my life. Good things, important things, fun things, and worst of all meaningless things. They all vie for my time, my attention and yes, my heart. But God is clear, my heart is to be his and he wants to fill it with the knowledge of himself. While it is easy to blame the hectic pace of life for my lack of discipline, that’s not the problem. God knew life would be hectic, the verse tells us that… “while you are sitting, walking, lying down or getting up”. The problem is one of value. What I value I protect, I serve, I devote time to. Frankly, this journaling has been great for me. I have been much more successful in fulfilling this very command. And here’s the amazing thing, I had to “sacrifice” very little, I just needed to adjust my values and the blessing was all mine.