{"id":139,"date":"2014-11-16T19:23:42","date_gmt":"2014-11-16T19:23:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihsteps.com\/wordpress\/?p=139"},"modified":"2020-06-07T11:14:20","modified_gmt":"2020-06-07T18:14:20","slug":"the-relationship-of-first-priority-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/?p=139","title":{"rendered":"The Relationship Of First Priority"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most people would agree that family time is important.  Being completely honest, I wonder how many of us would admit that all too often the intimacy of family time is sacrificed for other pressing engagements or even for the pursuit of personal interests.  Life can<\/em> be very distracting, after all.  I heard Dr. David Jeremiah address this issue in one sentence. “Put the important before<\/em> the immediate”.  Wait.. what?  “But”, I thought, “immediate means of top priority, doesn’t it?”  Then I thought some more. There are always those things that need my “immediate” attention, and there always will be.  I realized that the one truly important <\/em>thing is what Mary sought after; to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen (Luke 10:38-42). The immediate things can wait, but the important should never be put off.  I know in my heart that He always needs to come first. That is the relationship from which all others will spring up and flourish. <\/p>\n

When Abi was a little over two months old, I began taking care of her in my home every weekday during the full time hours her mom worked.  At first our relationship was pretty simple. Basically Abi cried, and I came running.   But something was happening even then.  As time went on and we spent more time together, our relationship grew.   I love Abi, and she loves me.   She calls me Grandma Happy (a story for another time).   She just started preschool which we both<\/em> needed months of preparation for.  You see, Abi and I have formed quite a bond, having spent so much time together for most of her life. I still see Abi once a week. I pick her up from school and we do something special for a couple of hours. Its precious time. But my favorite moment each week is when I silently sneak into her preschool classroom and stand there until she notices me. Her teacher does not announce me, but her smile tells me she’s anticipating the moment with me.  My eyes are fixed on Abi so I don’t miss the very moment she recognizes me, usually after doing a double take.  I love to see the delight on her face when she yells, “Grandma Happy!” Something lights up inside me as that little girl runs to give me the biggest hug, and I swear at that moment I must glow like a Care Bear! Abi then proceeds to show or tell me about something that has been of special interest to her during the week at school.  She wants me to be included, its important to her to share her heart with me. I pray for Abi every day, I think about her, I give her surprise gifts, plan something special for when we are together.  I teach her about Jesus’ love for her, and I pray that she grows up happy, healthy, and completely fulfilled in the plan God has for her. I think that’s how God feels about us when we look up from whatever is busying us and see Him standing there.  I think He looks for the delight on our faces when we realize He’s been  right there in the room with us (Psalm 37:4).   But this kind of intimacy is only the result of having taken the time to get to know Him through dilligently seeking His face.  Over time, an inseparable bond is made, a love relationship in proper portion to the degree of dependence we have upon Him emerges and grows stronger, even through the changing seasons of our lives. The Bible says “The Lord takes pleasure in His people.” (Psalm 149:4). I think He just beams when when we gladly trust that He is all we need in Christ, knowing He is there for us, to the point where we can’t help but to look up at Him and yell, “Abba, Father, You’re here!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most people would agree that family time is important.  Being completely honest, I wonder how many of us would admit that all too often the intimacy of family time is sacrificed for other pressing engagements or even for the pursuit of personal interests.  Life can be very distracting, after all.  I heard Dr. David Jeremiah address this issue in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":455,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[50,52,51,49],"class_list":["post-139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cathy-hicks-thinks-out-loud","tag-priorities","tag-ps-1494","tag-psalm-1494","tag-relationships","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":457,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions\/457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inhisstepsministry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}