Finding time for our families needs to become one of our highest priorities, it has for me lately. In many parts of the world there is a move into a downward cycle that we seem powerless to change at least for now. If we are able to recover from this cycle has become a topic on many people’s minds and the resultant issue of security has too. When these things come to the forefront of out minds we immediately think of things like family, church, spiritual works and even specific spiritual texts and translations like NASB Bible and RSV Bibles. When times are good it always seems we fail to remember what is lasting and trade it for the immediate gratification of satisfying our ego urges. It is had to argue against the fact that family is one of the most important things in life although it can take a back seat in the pursuit of our goals. Ironically it can be in the name of the family that we pursue these self appointed goals that steal time away from our family. We will often justify our absence from the family by stating that it is for those we love that we are do the things we do in the name of a better brighter future. I think we can have both but it takes a rearrangement and a giving up of the paradigm that allows us to stroke our egos with our own pursuits. It is obvious by now that I believe this approach is backwards. I do believe there can be times when we may need to be out of balance for a little while, like with businesses or projects that are being built but this has to be guarded against as the killer of relationships. When in a constant state of ego driven decisions make up a life, those things that should be important get way out of balance and our life becomes empty of those things we would consider priceless. Steps are necessary to stop this from happening and we should make time with our family a super high priority. Of course there are exceptions like life and death situations or if ones livelihood is in jeopardy. But even these situations need to be guarded against as they can become justified unnecessarily. A great author, Steven Covey discusses this sort of thing in his timeless book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and goes into great detail about dealing with the urgent as opposed to the important and how to change that. It is a major theme in the book and translating that into life is the motif of this article too. I hope you will pick up the book and I recommend you do so immediately. I would even go so far as to also recommend you take a look at the bible (you can find one here: Discount Bibles) as a good source of guidance in this area too. Find the time to do something important and let an urgent matter take its place after the family.