[1] As Tyler and I came home from running errands today I couldn’t’ help notice colorful leaves on some of the trees and also covering the sidewalks. This picture makes me think of the many entries my blog friends wrote when fall arrived. Now those friends have posts[2] about getting snowed in and below-zero temperatures, but here in Southern California the trees are still catching up!

I just started a book that was a gift from my pastor and his wife. It is High Call, High Privilege by Gail MacDonald who has around forty years of experience as a pastor’s wife. She writes about lessons she’s learned , the need to be authentic and effective and how she has overcome the struggles and pressures of her role.

I really enjoyed this portion from the Introduction–

I believe that relationships need to be prioritized. For me, priority one focuses on my knowledge of and intimacy with God. If this relationship isn’t vital and lively, all other connections are up for grabs.

I love how Gail describes what a priority this relationship is to her–vital and lively. I looked up both words in the dictionary and I think reflecting on their definitions helped me reconsider prioritizing changes needed in my own relationship with God.

Vital: existing as a manifestation of life, concerned with or necessary to the maintenance of life, characteristic of life or living beings.

Lively: briskly alert and energetic, active, intense.

Mark 12:30 says, “‘And you shall love the Lord your God will all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.” This command sounds pretty vital and lively to me. Sometimes I trick myself into thinking I can just do a half-hearted Bible reading time and quickly glance through my prayer journal and that somehow that still “counts.” But reading Mark 12:30 doesn’t sound like that is okay. There are too many alls in Jesus’s command for a half- hearted or hurried attention to Him to pass. Vital and lively is a great admonition to me for my pursuit of Him to be aggressive and eager.