Just last week I wrote out my plan for the next few days. Putting pencil to hot pink copy paper, I took stock of wake-up, breakfast, and workout times, important meetings and an odd assortment of things to remember (mow the lawn, weed the garden, buy that birthday card, call that friend, order those school uniforms, etc). Thanks be to God, I even managed to make sure that Mass and prayer found their space onto the list as well.

This is my jam, to-do lists.

Of course, the list is only helpful if I follow it: Wake-up times only work when I’ve prioritized my sleep. Carving out time for Mass and prayer only come to fruition when I don’t let other distractions get in the way. The to-do list, in other words, is only as effective as a set of well-ordered priorities.

This, my friends, is the ever-constant struggle of the people in today’s reading:

“Consider your ways,” says the Lord. “You have sown much, but have brought in little . . . eaten, but not been satisfied . . . and whomever earned wages earned them for a bag with holes in it” (Haggai 1:6). These poor souls are fumbling everything and not putting at the top of the list the thing that truly matters most: the rebuilding of the Lord's temple.

Through the Prophet Haggai, God urges His people to make a priorities shift: to devote their hearts to the temple, not once they get through items 1-3 on their list, but right now.

We’re called to the same, sister. It doesn’t mean that prayer and Mass and time with Our Lord will happen first thing every day, but it does mean that we prioritize Him in our hearts, that we tell Him we love Him, and that He’s the most important thing on even the most massive of to-do lists.

It’s all about priorities, sister. Tell Him that He’s at the top of your list today.

[bctt tweet="He’s the most important thing. // Karen Schultz " username="blessedisshe__"]

listen to today’s devotion