11Jan17

Galatians 5:13
For you, brothers, were called to freedom. Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity to gratify your flesh, but through love make it your habit to serve one another.

I have a tendency to get distracted when I am talking to people. If there is a TV on I will glance over and check out what's on even if I'm not at all interested in the show. If there is a notification sound I feel the impulse to stop whatever I am doing and check it even though I know it will not be an emergency. If there is something shiny, or a squirrel passes by, it grabs my attention. The problem with this is that I am sending a message to the person I am interacting with when I get distracted by these things. That message is, "This is more important to me than you." That's not the message I want to send but, I have set myself up for it. I have used my freedom to choose what I do to cater to my own entertainment and gratification so much that it overrides other peoples' priority.

One of the major lessons I have always tried to teach my children is that people come first. People come first before your money. People come first before your time. People come first before you. I have to drill this in because this is not the way that our society thinks. America is the land of individual freedoms. It's all about me. But, when you are looking at Facebook while sitting on the couch with someone you supposedly love what are you saying to them? When you answer the phone to talk to someone else when you are supposed to be spending quality time with them what are you saying? When you hear a "ding" and you HAVE to check you phone in the middle of a conversation what are you saying? What really comes first?