focus

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Colossians 3:2

A pastor tells a story of how he spent a summer teaching in Mexico and took both of his children with him. To pass the time as they drove, his 13-year-old son watched for license plates. The trip to Mexico netted him plates from 24 states!

So when they started back, the son was almost halfway to having seen plates from all 50 states. And their return trip would take them through Yellowstone National Park—a license plate collector’s paradise. By the morning of the second day there, he had just one more state to go: Delaware.

When the three stopped to see Yellowstone’s magnificent sights, the boy wouldn’t even glance at them. He preferred to run up and down the parking lots, looking at license plates. He had become so obsessed with finding that Delaware plate, it was as if his life depended on it. When they stopped near the picturesque Yellowstone Falls, he kept looking for license plates.

“Come here! You’ve got to see it!” the father heard. As they ran to the parking lot, they saw a blue Volkswagen bus with Delaware license plates. The family still has that picture, and even today, that picture that tells more about what they did in Yellowstone than anything else.

It’s easy to become so focused on the petty things of life that you miss the big things that really matter. So don’t let life’s distractions keep you from focusing on God. Instead, concentrate on what really matters in life: knowing God and making Him known!

Prayer Challenge:  Pray that God would reveal to you the things in your life that compete for His attention and ask Him to help you focus on Him over and above everything else.

Questions for Thought: What are some things in your life today that are competing for God’s attention? How can you put those things into perspective so that you don’t miss God because of trivial things?