January
27, 2014
[Pastorgraphs now online at ChristSD.com]
Pastorgraphs: “The Value of Values”
“Happy
are those who find wisdom
and those who gain understanding.
Her profit is better than silver,
and her gain better than gold.
Her value exceeds pearls;
all you desire can’t compare with her.”
and those who gain understanding.
Her profit is better than silver,
and her gain better than gold.
Her value exceeds pearls;
all you desire can’t compare with her.”
(Proverbs
3:13-15)
While it is
reasonable to predict the eventual winner (it will be the Duke Methodists this
year), to correctly predict the exact path of every team in the tournament
defies 1 in 9.2 quintillion odds. Mr. Buffet is not losing sleep over the
possibility of losing his billion dollars. But heck, go ahead and try. And if
you win, please “tithe” to Christ Ministry Center of San Diego.
An
employment expert once calculated American businesses lose $1.7 billion in
productivity during March Madness. Workers play office pools, often fill out
their brackets on company computers and watch the games over the internet on
company time.
So I feel
pretty confident in saying Americans spend more time, money and energy in e-VALUE-ating
sports teams than they do their own VALUES.
Two weeks
ago, I wrote a Pastorgraph about wisdom. Last week, I wrote about thinking and
beliefs. There is a pattern here. You don’t just suddenly wake up one morning
with wisdom.
·
The
first step toward wisdom is “getting your head screwed on right”. That is, getting
your thinking (beliefs) straightened out.
·
The
next step is to order your beliefs into values.
You hear a
lot about values (“family values”, “core values”, “old fashioned values”), but
do you really know what your values are? And why should you even care?
Hypocrisy, the opposite of integrity, occurs when you say you believe one thing
but value or do the opposite thing. For example, many people say they believe
in “family values”, but never spend time with family.
Values are
important, so I offer:
Seven
Secrets About Your Values
1.
Your
Values Impact Every Aspect of Your Life. Knowing your personal values is extremely
important because your values influence and shape everything about your life,
(even if you cannot name them all). Your values establish a firm
foundation for the criteria by which you establish worth to everything in your
life, including people, ideas, activities, and money.
2.
Your
Values Express What is Important to You. A good simple definition of values is “the things you
like, and the order in which you like them”. So values are not just what you
“like”. A good indication of what you truly value is where you spend your time
and money.
3.
Your
Values Expose Your Priorities.
Someone wisely said, “Show me your checkbook and I will tell you what your
values are!” Often values conflict with each other. For instance, you want to
save money, but you want a better car. How you deal with such conflicts
expresses your priorities.
4.
Your
Values Shape Your Sense of Right and Wrong. That is why you must start with what you believe
before you can adequately deal with what you value. In a “live-and-let-live”
world we have been convinced that deciding right from wrong is “being
judgmental”. Sorry, but to be a person of ethics and integrity, you cannot avoid
deciding what is right and wrong for you. That doesn’t mean you judge others.
Personal values provide an internal reference for what is right, beneficial,
important and useful in life.
5.
Your
Values Reveal Who You Believe You Ought to Be. Values reveal who you believe you
“ought” to be. This “oughtness” is an essential aspect of ethics. Your values
help design the plan of your whole life. Albert Einstein said, “Try not to
become a person of success but rather try to become a person of value.”
6.
Your
Values Show What You Ought to Do.
You cannot escape your responsibilities and obligations if you know what you
value. If you find you are not following your values in life, you have the
ability to change what you are doing, or not doing.
7.
Your
Values Determine Your Choices.
Values guide decisions. Your list of values becomes a resource to evaluate any
decision with confidence by asking yourself: “What should I do in this
situation if these are my guiding values in life?” If you apply this method to
every area of your life, you will surely see your life becoming more aligned
with your values.
So how do
you determine your values? Use the model of a basketball tournament bracket.
List the top things you value. Then place them into the first round of the
bracket, and stage a playoff for each pairing. Ask yourself if you had to
select just one of the two, which would it be? The winner advances to the next
round. Continue until you have just one value. That is what you value most. You
will know what is most important to you, and the order of those important
things.
You might
find, as Proverbs says, that finding your values is worth more than pearls,
silver, gold, and even Mr. Buffet’s billion dollars.
Devotedly
yours, Bill Jenkins
From the
Quote Garden:
“Your beliefs become your thoughts.
Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions
become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your
destiny.”
~ Mahatma Gandhi ~
Christ United Methodist Ministry
Center
“Christ
in the Heart of San Diego”
3295
Meade Avenue - San Diego, CA 92116 - (619) 284-9205
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