Caribbean Moravian Devotions

Yesterday was observed as Thanksgiving Day in the USA. Traditionally, itÂ’s the busiest holiday of the year in terms of FAMILY members travelling either by air or land to spend the day together. Central to the Thanksgiving holiday is bringing FAMILIES together to have a meal. That may sound like not that big of a deal but considering just how busy FAMILY life can get and that FAMILIES are nowadays separated by such great distances, coming together at least on Thanksgiving is something not to be taken for granted. There was a time when the stores closed on Thanksgiving Day because it valued the importance of that family tradition. But thereÂ’s been a recent trend where more and more stores are opening up on Thanksgiving Day and having a jump start to the big sales that normally take place the day after Thanksgiving. So instead of waiting until what is known as Black Friday to catch all of the deals, retailers are now starting from the Thursday. But according to news media, many Americans are saying not supporting this move and are pushing back against the new trend in stores opening up on Thanksgiving. The argument is that Thanksgiving is still more about FAMILY and not about spending more money. With all that is out there that can distract from FAMILIES spending quality time together, it is good to see folks pushing back against this new trend. With that in mind our FF for today is to MAKE FAMILY A PRIORITY!

Whatever we consider to be important we give our time and energy to. Whenever I hear somebody say, “I don’t have the time,” I often wonder if it would not be more correct to say “I can’t afford the time,” or maybe “I choose not to spend my time doing what you’ve requested.” The truth is that whatever we give our time to is a reflection to others of the things and people we consider to be important. So today let’s examine again how we spend our time and in the process ask ourselves does our time management say to our FAMILY that we’ve made them our PRIORITY? Think of how you spend your 24 hours. Can you break down how much time you give for each day’s activities? Who or what gets the most of your time? Who or what gets the best of your time? In the midst of all that we do each day and the goings-on where do we rank our FAMILY? How much of quality time is spent with our FAMILY? Have we in the process of sacrificing for our FAMILY also unfortunately sacrificed our FAMILY as well? How do we today MAKE FAMILY A PRIROTY? Give them the best of our time.

As the Christmas season approaches, we are all making our shopping list and deciding what to get for the various members of our FAMILIES. For some of us we have set aside a budgeted amount for each FAMILY member. We may have already started shopping and hiding away our gifts so that we don’t ruin the big surprise on Christmas day. But in the midst of the shopping and the holiday hustle and bustle might we still find the time to be reminded that not only at this time of the year but with each passing day we should MAKE FAMILY A PRIORITY! There’s one thing that money can’t buy – time! And when we give quality and quantity time to our FAMILY we are making an investment in a legacy that will long outlive us. So today let’s MAKE FAMILY A PRIORITY!

Mikie Roberts (Rev)
HereÂ’s the link for the blog. Join in the discussions.
http://moravians.net/serendipity/index.php?/categories/1-Friday-Focus