What Do You Value Most? Do You Know?

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They say if you want to know what a person values most . . . look at their calendar and their checkbook/credit card statement.

What do you value most?

I’m not talking values like patience, honesty, and compassion, today. We’ll leave that for another time. I’m talking about the places we invest ourselves.

Most of us live with an abundance of things from which to choose. Purchases. Time. Pursuits. Relationships.  Where you and I spend our time and money will always expose what we consider most valuable.

Here is a partial list of some things we can choose:

• Appearance – Being considered attractive by others.
• Freedom – Power to make personal choices without control or restraint.
• Happiness – Feelings of pleasure, enjoyment, contentment, and joy.
• Inclusion – Belonging . . . accepted, and valued by a group.
• Knowledge – Having an advanced amount of information and education.
• Prestige – Achieving a high level of fame and personal importance. 
• Relationships – Close connection to family and friends. 
• Security – Stable environment free of danger. 
• Success – Accomplishment of goals in your chosen field. 
• Wealth – Great quantity of money, possessions, or property.
• Youthfulness – Maintaining a young appearance and level of activity.

Let me ask again . . . What do you value most?

The goal of Counting My Blessings is to focus on those places where faith intersects with life. With that in mind, you may have noticed that there were a few specific things missing from the list above.

• A Relationship with God Through Jesus.
• Faith.
• Prayer.
• Loving God.
• Loving Others.

Paul said in Philippians 3:

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with Him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with Himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead. I want to suffer with Him, sharing in His death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! v. 8–11

It’s hard isn’t it?

We live in the here and now, yet we’re to have faith that gives us an eternal perspective. Faith that realizes that most of what we consider valuable is temporary. Faith that points us to what Jesus called the Pearl of Great Value:

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field. Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it! Matthew 5:44–46

The Kingdom of Heaven! Life eternal in God’s presence and those who love Him. Loving Him. Loving them. That is what Jesus described as most valuable, and Paul said it is His relationship with God through faith in Jesus that is most valuable.

So once again . . . What do you value most?

I’m asking myself. I know what my heart wants to value most. I even know what my head knows I should value most. The thing I’m wondering is . . . if I showed you my calendar and my credit card statement would you be able to tell what my head and my heart believe?

Loving God. Loving Others. My calendar. My purchases. Hmmm. I have a lot to think about.

You too?

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