What could you do?

Our lives are filled with mountains and valleys. At times we feel like we can fly, and other times we feel like we don't even want to get out of bed.

Even more than that, our lives are really split into many different "categories." We have our personal life, our church life, our family life, our work life, our school life, and our friends life. There is definitely a separation there, but the challenge is "prioritizing" those lives. Here are some helpful thoughts for putting your life into order.

#1- our walk with God should always be number one. It is our faith in Him, our relationship with Jesus, and our growth through love of others and faith. This is the only one of the lives with "eternal" implications; therefore it needs to be number one for that reason. Your earthly life will end, and all you will have left is how you personally lived for God. (Not how your parents, friends, or youth group lived, but how you lived. Also: not "what" you did, but how you lived.)

#2- Family life really should fit here. Those are the people we live with who we will be in direct contact with for our entire earthly lives. They can help us with #1, as well as give us purpose outside of our faith (or in conjunction with our faith). Keeping family relationships strong will only make you a better person in the long run.

#3- At this point in many of your lives, either school or church should fall here. Church is not deemed as necessary to everyone, but it is very important if your list has #1 truly at #1. School is also very important because it is the starting line for future successes in life. I have learned that there are certain non-negotiables in life, and the rest of the things are up for discussion. Don't get me wrong, church is important, but church "work" can not and should not dominate your life outside of God and your family. Churchy people call it "being so heavenly minded that you are no earthly good."

#4- Friends, work, relationships, fun and other stuff can fall here. So often as teenagers, we allow something here to get too high up on our list, causing unbalance and problems in our lives. These are all things that need to be done with balance and knowledge. Spend time with good influences, like-friends, and acceptable fun stuff but don't let it dominate your life. Good balance leads to good living, trust me.

Consider re-prioritizing your life so that you can have good balance. God will reward your hard work.