Today is your child’s birthday, mom has a party planned with guests, gifts, cake, and ice cream. It is also game day and some of your pals want to come over, have a few beers and watch the game. You tell them sure they can have their birthday party in the kitchen, we’ll watch the game in the living room. The kids and their parents are all piled into the small kitchen trying to keep the kids corralled so they won’t disturb you and your pal’s game. You just put a game and friends on your list of priorities ahead of your wife and children. Your priorities are way out of line. Your car insurance and electric bill are past due but you just can’t pass up the sale on the new camouflage outfit you have been wanting, so the bills are ignored and you have a brand new killer camouflaged outfit to wear when deer season opens in a few months. Your lights are getting turned off tomorrow and your car insurance is going to be canceled, but those dear, turkey’s, ducks, and squirrels won’t be able to see you. Maybe you can drape them over your meter box and the meter man won’t be able to find the meter to turn it off. You just put hunting accessories on the top of your priority list before your family, your transportation to and from work, hospitals, and other places you may need to go. Your priorities are way out of line. Your wife is pregnant with your very first child and is put on high risk due to various complications. Suddenly in the middle of the day, she has pain in her stomach area that has her doubled over in the fetal position in tears. You can’t be reached on the phone at work, so a note is left in your work truck telling you about your wife and which emergency room she is taken to. Anything is possible because you haven’t talked to anyone, she could be hemorrhaging bleeding to death, and losing the baby. She is in the best place she can be as far as you are concerned, so after a hard day at work, your wife is in the emergency room your thinking you better get something to eat because she won’t feel like cooking. So, you pull into one of the fast-food places, order and wait for your food and drink, then figure you may as well eat it while it’s hot, so you sit right there and consume your burger and fries. Sometime later you come strolling into the emergency room sporting what is left of your supersize drink. Everything is ok though your wife feels much better knowing you were so concerned about her. You just put your own personal needs before the very life and death of your first child and wife. Food that you could have just as easily stopped to get on your way home so your wife that had been in pain all day could have something to eat as well. Your priorities are seriously messed up. Tomorrow is the first day of school, you have three children to get up, get dressed, and feed breakfast before they catch the bus at 7:00 am. You decide to have some friends over to grill and play a board game or cards. Before you know it, the time has slipped by and it is 4:00 in the morning. You are exhausted and sleepy so you lay down on your bed knowing you need to be up in an hour. You wake up late, angry from lack of sleep, and take your anger out on your children. They are poorly dressed, taken to school hair not combed or brushed, mismatched socks, no breakfast, and 45 minutes late. They walk into the classrooms with tears in their eyes from the embarrassment. You go home call in sick at work and climb back into bed. After a good sleep you wonder why your kids all come home from school tired, hurt feelings, and mad about their first day at school. You put your entertainment ahead of your children and your responsibilities as a parent to your children. Your priorities are way out of line. You may think the order of your priorities is trivial. It’s not, in fact, it is as important as anything else important in your life. It tells your spouse where they place in your life, the level of your love and commitment. It tells your children how special they are to you; how much they mean to you or don’t. It tells your employer how dependable and goal-oriented you are. It tells your creditors how reliable and dependable you are. It tells everyone in your life exactly what kind of man or woman you are. So, what’s your priority?
Simply my Thoughts
Dean Butler
