How do you put God first?

[Mimi]

Hi,

I’ve been corresponding with my 25 yo son who was on a ship (aircraft carrier) for the last 8 months, due back on US soil very soon. He is trying to decide if he wants to stay in or look for work in civilian life and intends to get married.

I sent him articles on Catholic teaching from time to time and we talked about what it means to be Catholic; sort of a refresher course. He seems to be interested in returning to be an active Catholic, but recently, after telling him that if he put God first, all things would fall into place and he replied that,
“If I always put God first, I would never get anything done.
Don’t get me wrong here, I see things happening too, but I’m not content just waiting for God to ‘work things out’, that would be foolish. I prefer to have total control over all situations, that seems to work for me.”

How can I advise him that to put God first doesn’t really take any more time, it is more of an attitude shift. I think it means to pray for wisdom and guidance before making important decisions, that type of thing.

How do you put God first in your daily life?
Thanks in advance for replies!

God bless,
Mimi

 

[pray4peace]

I put God first by acknowledging that He is God and Creator over all. I ask Him when I get up in the morning to guide me in making the right decisions according to His will. I go to bed at night thanking Him for the day, and asking forgiveness for any wrong doing.

Prayer for faith and trust to do His will is what has helped me the most. We can pray for others to have this as well.

Blessings

 

[burdickt]

We all have this feeling from time to time. In fact, it seems to be my number one sin confessed in confession. Not allowing God to show me His will and carrying on with my own. I was told by a good friend of mine once that if you want to make God laugh, make plans.

Here’s how you can explain it to your son:
Sooner or later he will realize that he never has and never will have “complete control” over everything. At one point he will fail. if he already believes in God and the Catholic faith, that’s good, but if he only realizes God’s presence during his times of need, then its time to pray a few rosaries for Grace and Mercy to guide him into a lighter path. This path is found when you realize that your plans run paralel with God’s and you work together on every wavelength. Even when you don’t feel His presence, faith and hope encourage you to continue on until both wills are the same. All you reallly have to do is ask God to make His plans your plans.

Think about it like this. If your son were a computer he would be capable of doing a multitude of things. He’d be able to carry out plans, and programs that have been created by him. For example, Microsoft word came from a computer so that all other computers might be able to benefit from it.

Let’s say this computer breaks down from a nasty virus and is in need of repair. With whom would you have more trust, the person who designed the computer from scratch, or the local repair guy from best buy? Both might be able to fix the computer, but isn’t there more logic behind allowing the creator do it?

In this case, if the computer is your son, the creator of this computer is God. The best buy repair man is anything else that the world can offer (especially our own human pride) In the end, the world might fix our problem for a little while, but you’ll probably have to pay a fee and eventually bring the computer back for more repairs until it goes no further. And all you had to do was bring it to the creator who loved his original so much, he’d fix it for free, and put an antivirus protection program on it so that this problem would never come back again.

Your son is capable of creating a microsoft word program of his own, but before he can do that, he should probably read his own manual, The Bible, and give a phone call to the originator, prayer, to make sure he’ll be protected from any virus that comes along.

 

[Gottle_of_Geer]

Hi,

I’ve been corresponding with my 25 yo son who was on a ship (aircraft carrier) for the last 8 months, due back on US soil very soon. He is trying to decide if he wants to stay in or look for work in civilian life and intends to get married.

I sent him articles on Catholic teaching from time to time and we talked about what it means to be Catholic; sort of a refresher course. He seems to be interested in returning to be an active Catholic, but recently, after telling him that if he put God first, all things would fall into place and he replied that,
“If I always put God first, I would never get anything done.
Don’t get me wrong here, I see things happening too, but I’m not content just waiting for God to ‘work things out’, that would be foolish. I prefer to have total control over all situations, that seems to work for me.”

How can I advise him that to put God first doesn’t really take any more time, it is more of an attitude shift. I think it means to pray for wisdom and guidance before making important decisions, that type of thing.

How do you put God first in your daily life?
Thanks in advance for replies!

God bless,
Mimi

How does one swim ? By swimming. ​

So with this - “putting God first” is not an activity separate from others, in the way that ironing, for instance, is separate from eating or shopping. It’s more like an atmosphere or an environment within which one lives.

It’s a bit like breathing: if we stop doing that, we can’t possible cook or eat or shop or think or do anything. To breathe, is necessary for us to live at all. So here - if we are to live as Christians, we need to learn to get our priorities right; & this is possible only by living in Christ as our environment, our atmosphere. As the saying goes, “practice makes perfect”.

Our activities don’t need to be “religious” in any obvious way - one can perfectly well glorify God by peeling potatoes or baby-sitting or keeping one’s temper under provocation. The whole of the lives God has given us, is open to Him, & to be lived for Him. Everything we do, as long as it it is not intrinsically wrong, can in principle be an act of worship in this way. Going to Mass is the summit of all these others ways of living to God - it is not (so to put it) a bit of the week that we throw to God, as though He were a dog to be satisfied by a scrap of meat

Hope that helps

 

[richardwy]

How do you put God first in your daily life?
Thanks in advance for replies!

God bless,
Mimi

Compline or other pious reading. I always pray before sleeping. The Rosary usually. It’s wonderful. A seemless continuity from prayer to sleep.

The morning office upon awakening. Gives me the directions for the day. I don’t go shooting out the door to do “my thing.”

 

[mtk76]

I used to make similiar statements to the one below and I would say that one is not yet at the point of “putting God first” with this kind of mindset. It conveys a sense of oneself knowing God’s timing better than God and not relying that God is God and he knows best.
In any event it is a false belief that we have total control over all situations. It is God who has this control although often times we do not realize it until after we are disappointed or a tragedy happens. At least that is what broke me out of that perspective.

Good job in communicating the importance of God to your children that is a step I am trying to do as well.

Mark

“If I always put God first, I would never get anything done.
Don’t get me wrong here, I see things happening too, but I’m not content just waiting for God to ‘work things out’, that would be foolish. I prefer to have total control over all situations, that seems to work for me.”

 

[Mimi]

Thanks for all responses!

I think putting God first should not necessarily take a whole lot more time; just prayerful reflection, and not diving into decisions without due consideration and asking, “Where does God seem to be leading me?”

Developing one’s prayer life is a necessity. Considering my son hasn’t been a regular church-goer for some years, that may be a good starting point. Just being in a praying community.

I also think that when we make time for God, He “makes” time for us. God is not restricted by time as we are; He can arrange things for us in ways we might not have thought possible.

He’s due back on US soil real soon. I hope I’ll have more time to talk with him about these things in the coming months, although my schedule will be getting much busier as well! Help, God!
(I know He will.)

God bless,
Mimi