Priorities of Packing

I have been thinking about Priorities as we have discovered a few things that didn't arrive on the container as we had planned them to.

The packing surveyor told us when she came to prioritize what should go first, second, third, and so on.  We thought we had marked piles well but the packers came first and apparently just picked up some things, stuffed them in wherever they would fit, and didn't pay attention to what priority we had marked the item. 

We had first priority things in our Greenville dining room, all furniture was first priority, and then we had piles of 2nd and 3rd priority boxes. 

A couple of funny things happened as a result-our region free dvd player that we had bought so that we could watch US purchased movies or Manila purchased movies apparently went to storage by mistake-even though it had been in the dining room.  I saw my sewing machine's box perched precariously on the top of the pile at the back of the container.  I didn't think that all the fabric I had would make it here but that was okay.  However, as it turns out I got a pretty big box of fabric, my machine, but no sewing basket-the one with the pins, extra needles, alternate machine feet, good scissors, patterns, the machine's manual, etc.  Okay-well that may make some things very interesting but just a hobby thing not a truly important thing.  By the way many of my scrapbooking things (including the cricut machine) did get to come.

So the more I was thinking about priorities and packing I was reminded of a spiritual application and an activity we did on a women's retreat at our church a few years ago.  Everyone started with a small empty baby food jar.  We were all given colorful large stones, dried beans, and then rice and told to put the items in the jar, starting with the largest first.  As it turns out, if you start with the rice, the bigger things don't all fit.  You have to put in the largest, most important things in first!

That is why all the books say to have your quiet time in the morning and tithe immediately from your paycheck.  If you start the laundry and the cooking and the other things first often I never get back to my quiet time.  Likewise there may not be money left to tithe at the end of the month.

The packers didn't know what was most important to me-Ashley's toy doll bed (that my grandfather had built for me to play with) went to storage because the box it was in was too wide to fit at the back of the container and the door still close.  I think my sewing basket may be in that same box.

The important lesson to learn is to prioritize and then act on the priorities in the order of their eternal importance-not just what there is barely space left over to squeeze things into.