Do you know what’s important to you?

Do you know what is important to you?

That question sounds so silly, it seems to be nothing but a waste of time. But in the modern world, it’s actually a very important and very relevant question. We keep ourselves so busy and so occupied that we give or make very little time to think. Because of that, MANY people today have given very little consideration to what is important to them. In fact, many (most?) would have to first stop and think before they could answer that question because they’re not really conscious of what is important to them.

We rarely talk about or teach the idea of honing a set of personal values to help guide our lives, even though we all need them. Football coach, Vince Lombardi, is famous for a one-liner that supposedly represented what was important to him: “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.” But according to Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley, Lombardi came to regret and repent of his statement …

“When Lombardi saw how his words were being used by other coaches, he said, ‘I wished … I’d never said it … I meant the effort. I meant having a goal. I sure … didn’t mean for people to crush human values and morality.”

Modern business leaders are taught that even business entities need to have a developed and defined set of core values to guide an organization. What are core values? One definition is:

Core values are the fundamental beliefs of a person or organization. These guiding principles dictate behavior and can help people understand the difference between right and wrong. Core values also help companies to determine if they are on the right path and fulfilling their goals by creating an unwavering guide.

For the Christian, we look to the Bible to garner our values for living as disciples of Jesus. Churches often try to develop “core values,” but which do you adopt and which are not quite “core”?

To help with this, the Bible goes beyond the human idea of core values to provide us with some “critical values” — values that are critical for every follower of Jesus to adopt into their lives. These critical values are:

LOVE GOD (The greatest commandment – Matthew 22:37-38).
LOVE OTHERS (The second greatest commandment – Matthew 22:39).
MAKE DISCIPLES (The Great Commission – Matthew 28:18-20).

Do these three things make up your most critical values that you believe in and practice? Are these the critical values that give direction to your behavior? If these are not your most critical values, what are?

Scotty