when I got the email from one of the senior directors with information about a new hire who will be starting the day after labor day. In Pennsylvania. What that means is that I need to complete several forms to get equipment ordered - laptop, monitors, keyboards, headsets, etc. - and have IT get them shipped. Then..... our cable went out and there was nothing I could do. My last hour before going on 'vacation'. I could have passed it all over to another admin and asked them to do it because our cable went out (saw to Cox trucks down the street...what did they do?). But, I didn't feel that was fair. And even though I don't know what I'm doing as I haven't had to order equipment like this before, I decided I would go back online sometime today and try to input the information and get as far as I can (assuming the cable is back on - the TV was on last night so it should be). If I get stuck, I will have to pass it on to someone else, but I didn't want to push it off - because I really do not want to do it. Yep. There I said it. I really do not want to order the equipment and jump through all the hoops IT makes us do (because of security) and get it done. But, it is part of my job and I need to do it.
But. It will get done later this afternoon. This morning I will be having breakfast with my youngest son, and then I asked him to take me to the AFB to look at Apple Watches. I'm still flip-flopping on whether or not to get one, don't need it, but I like the information that it shares. I've talked extensively with my brother and a couple others who have them and they all comment they are glad to have the information. I get a lot of information from my Versa 2, but it is mainly used for steps. We have a program at work called Virgin Pulse that tracks my steps in challenges (same as Fitbit) but with co-workers moreso than family. I would have to manually input my steps from the watch since it doesn't connect with Fitbit nor Virgin Pulse. One thing for sure, it would make me more conscious of my steps if I had to input the total every day. I will look at the watch today and make a decision while I'm there. I received over half the money for my birthday so it's a gift of sorts. I will probably get it.... but I have questions before I do.
Early afternoon I am to call my neighbor's daughter and she wants to take me to see her mother so that I know where this place is and where her mother's 'apartment' is located. I can't 'enjoy' the thought of going on vacation until I get all these 'priorities' completed. Need to go to the grocery yet and pick up things to take with us too. Yes, we can buy some things there, but can get some things cheaper here - like a case of water, hubby's V-8, etc. Not a lot of shopping - and they are not priority.
I was reading in Haggai in this morning. I love it when something pops lout that although I've read it before, it is still an 'aha!' moment when I read it Setting the scene, King Darius had allowed the Jews who had been taken to Babylon, to return to Jerusalem. So the people had returned, and started to rebuild the temple mount, planning to rebuild the temple. But, the people who lived there from other areas said and did things that discouraged them. So what did the Jews do? They started focusing on their own homes, their own things. They went up in to the forests and brought back wood to cover their roofs and panel their walls. They made their homes elaborate, but left the house of the Lord unfinished.
That did not set well with the Lord. Whenever God's people focus more on their own net worth than His work, they experience consequences. They experience failure. No matter how hard self-interested people work, they never get enough, and end up with nothing to show for it and can never get ahead.
They are also frustrated. Nothing satisfies them or gets accomplished with they hoped for. It is futile. No matter what they earn, if God isn't the center of their lives, they find their values change ... as their values change (from God to themselves). God will withhold His blessings if He is not center of our lives.
Haggai 1:6 (NKJV): "You have sown much, and bring in little; You eat, but do not have enough; You drink, but you are not filled with drink; You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; And he who earns wages, Earns wages to put into a bag with holes."
That is a sobering thought, isn't it? Haggai was telling the people God's message to them and to us - if you don't put Me first, this is what happens. The warning is that 'what happens in the heart affects every aspect of life.' The price of the Israelite's selfishness was their loss of God's blessings. And the price of our selfishness and self-centeredness is the loss of God's blessings.
Who has the priority in your life? When you put God first, you will find He blesses you and your family in so many ways. Some are so minor that we don't even think about them. It's like tithing to the Lord. When we give God the first fruits of our earnings, He will bless us. I've shared about that before and how God has taken what little I could give, but it was all I had, and He turned it around and blessed it. God must come first in our lives; Jesus is the Center.
Malachi 3:10 (NKJV): "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this," Says the Lord of hosts, "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it."
In what do you place your priorities? When you put God first, His blessings are always forthcoming in ways you cannot imagine. Trust Him. Make God your priority and see what He will do for you.
Blessings!
