"Am I Filling Salt Shakers?"

 From my grandma:

PRIORITIES

 

“Am I filling salt shakers?”

     During my second year of college I worked as a cook/waitress in a small drug store near campus.  At closing time, we would clean the grill, mop the floor, and fill all napkin holders and salt shakers.  We couldn’t clean or mop until the last customer left, but often I would fill napkin holders and salt shakers during the last 15 minutes when we rarely had customers.  Occasionally a customer would come in 10 minutes before we closed when I was in the middle of my project.  Instead of interrupting my task I would hurriedly try to finish the last 5 tables before checking on my customer, who waited quietly at a table.  After this happened several times, the lady I worked with took me aside and gently reminded me that I was hired to take care of customers—not fill salt shakers.  I had my priorities wrong and was actually viewing my first priority as an “interruption” to my plans.  It is so easy to miss opportunities to serve God and others because these opportunities are unexpected and unplanned on our part. We view them not as “opportunities” but as “interruptions.”  These “opportunities” are often disguised as people. Sometimes when my plans are changed by others I have to ask myself, “Am I meeting a need or just filling salt shakers?”

 

     Someone once described a priority as something you put on your schedule and nothing can bump it off.  One day I listened to a motivational speaker illustrate time management skills.  He had a small aquarium which he filled with large rocks.

    “Is it full?”  He asked.

We agreed that it appeared to be full. It seemed obvious he could not fit any more of his rocks into it.  He brought out another bowl of smaller rocks and began adding them to the aquarium. We watched the smaller rocks fill in around the larger ones.

     Again he asked if it were full, and again we affirmed it.  Now he produced a bucket of sand and began adding the sand to the aquarium.  Again he repeated his question.  This time we affirmed it with less certainty. He brought out a pitcher of water and proceeded to pour water in until it would hold no more.  “Now it is full,” he announced.  “What principle does this demonstrate?”

     “No matter how full your schedule, there is always a way to fit something else into it, “ someone offered, which was exactly what I was thinking.  Before I could congratulate myself on getting the right answer he bellowed, “No!  That isn’t it at all.  You missed the point.  You have to put the big rocks in first or you won’t get them in at all.  What if I had put the water in first?”

 Prioritize every area of your life.  Schedule the most important things first. As you do, remember that some things are important; some things are urgent; a few things are both; and many things are neither. Line up your priorities with those God gives to us. 

Our actions are the true indicator of our priorities.

“Success is only another form of failure if we forget what our priorities should be.”