Misplaced Priorities

Often times we lose sight of what's important in our lives. How does this happen? Sometimes we get a little busier than we should or we take little things for granted or we waste our precious time on things that are not worthy of us. In these times it is always a blessing that something or someone comes along and helps us to realize whats important. I have seen a few of these examples as well as experienced a few of my own. Wanna hear one? Well here it go...


I recently went back to work after being on spring vacation. I arrived to see several dozen kids wearing sneakers that I personally know cost 200 dollars. I probably wouldn't have paid attention but so many kids had on the same color shoes that I couldn't help but notice. I just started counting the money. two hundred here and there and the amount just kept rising. Before I knew it. I had counted ten THOUSAND dollars worth of sneakers!! So many of those kids had the same shoes on that I began to become disgusted. First, I believe anything made in a factory or warehouse can be sold for anything. This means that these shoes can be sold for a lot less and they would still make the corporations happy at the end of the quarter.  Second and most importantly, what really upset me was the fact that the parents of several of those kids (who aren't stellar students by the way) could spend 200 hundred dollars on a pair of tennis shoes but didn't feel compelled to buy their children pencils and paper. (10 pack of pencils 1 dollar. pack of paper 2 dollars) Several students asked me for materials and I was dumbfounded because I couldn't believe what I was seeing! Then it hit me. WHAT are we teaching our children really? What is their perception? If they are watching us then what are WE doing? 
Here it is...


 Misplaced priorities. When you are defined by what's on your feet rather than by what's in your heart then you have misplaced your priorities. When our children are falling by the way side and failing badly while we tend to our own wants and needs then our priorities are misplaced. Lastly, when we value status more than we value relationships we have misplaced our priorities.


Please believe me when I say that I am not standing on a soap box. I believe that there are times when things need to be said. We are all human and we are all guilty of misplacing priorities. But it is imperative that we do better and BE better. It makes no sense that we are going to off the deep end and as long as we look like we have it together its ok. It's not.  By no means am I saying not to buy your children nice things but we need to remember that there simply is no substitute for morals and values. Those things are investments that we pass on to future generations. Watering it down with materials is not a suitable option. Bottom Line GET IT TOGETHER! THINK ABOUT YOUR DECISIONS! THEN REACT ACCORDINGLY!  The relationships we fail to nuture will wane and eventually die unless we take the time to make important people in our lives a priority. I know I need to do better. Im sure you do too.  Let's take heed and make people stand there and count up the values that we gave to others until the number is too high for them to fathom. Be well...                      -    A. Brown