Discipline And Priority...

After the first few weeks of Faith Formation witnessing my class behave like animals work to settle into a new class year, I thought we should start the next class discussing discipline and priorities. 

I began by asking all 18 attendees to think about their day and make a list of their priorities. We then went around the room and compiled quite an extensive list. Once we were done, I asked if any of them had prayer among their priorities. There was an audible gasp from the class and some even apologized. I let them know there was no reason to apologize, but we need to look at this.

By taking the word "Priority" and making it an acronym, we find many ways to incorporate prayer in our lives:

Praise to our Lord is a wonderful way to pray;

Reconciling our thoughts, words, and deeds daily is a wonderful way to pray;

Interceding on the behalf of others, praying for others in need; 

Observe all of God's blessings in our lives;

Receive the peace of our Lord;

Incorporate the Holy Spirit into everything we do in glory to God;

Thank the Lord for the happiness as well as the challenges because

You are loved.

We talked about prayer not needing to be flowery prose but an ongoing conversation with our Lord. While this may seem difficult at first, this is where discipline comes in. Discipline does not need to have a negative connotation. Discipline is necessary to create a new habit. And only by taking "in" out of discipline and putting it "in" to priorities can we become disciples. 

And what could be better than that?