Thinking long-term: this means going beyond our deaths

Do you frequently hear people advocating long-term planning, yet theirs does not go beyond the point of their death? That is not long-term planning; it's short-term planning!

Long-term planning should go far beyond our deaths, and it is far more important than any will or inheritance we plan to leave to our loved ones.

One day we will leave this world, and go to a world beyond, where we will meet God. It's crucial that we are prepared for that time. Getting our earthly affairs in order is merely short-term planning; dealing with spiritual matters is long-term planning which has eternal consequences.

If we expect to plan for the long term, our focus must be on the long term, not on the short term. This means keeping a focus on spiritual matters. This is not always easy to do, as day-to-day living can quite easily take up 110% of our time, effort and energy.

Also, it is necessary to work in the earthly world, raise our children, and so on. I am not advocating taking time away from those things.

I have found that one thing which is helping me keep the focus on the long-term important things is reading my Bible daily and praying. Sometimes it seems like there are literally not enough hours in the day, but to overcome this I put the Bible reading and praying either at the start of the day or the end of the day. Right now I'm only doing about 15 - 20 mins or so each day, but it is an absolute "must" in my daily living. If I have to let some other things go by the wayside in order to read the Bible and pray for those 15 to 20 mins, then so be it. I don't feel guilty about that. Again, the sacrificed time is not taken away from activities related to child-rearing or cooking for my family, but from other things that aren't absolutely crucial. So if it means that instead of dusting my windowsills I'm reading my Bible, then that's OK.

In fact, I'm 100% certain God wants us to know him better, even if this is to be at the expense of dust-free windowsills! How do I know this? From the scripture of Mary and Martha, where Jesus clearly explains how important it is to spend time on spiritual learning and on just being with him, even if this comes at the expense of housework.

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