Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.”– Proverbs 24:27

With so many distractions is a given day, it is very easy to put less important things before more important things. The world is constantly begging for our attention in this direction or in that. It is screaming, “Look at me, I have something to offer you.” While another yells, “No, no, I am the one that you really want.” All the while our attention has been deflected from something that really was important. Perhaps even something that really was what we wanted.

For a farmer, if he were to build a house during the spring, he would miss the planting season, and thus go without food for a year. This proverb reminds the farmer to plant the fields first, since that is the highest priority. Then while the seeds are sprouting, build the house. In this instance, the house could wait.

Certain things in life deserve our attention at certain times. We must discipline our minds to make sure that we are not spending our time mending fences while the foundation of our house in cracking. We must pray for right priority. We must spend our time on what is important, not what is necessarily in our view at the moment. We must learn the art of discriminating between good and best when it comes to the ordering of our time.