Second Best

With 20 years in the construction industry , there is no doubt that every facet of the work is grueling . From the seemingly mundane task of “rolling out” the tools at the beginning of the day to “rolling em’ up” at the end , to the stress of trying to both please the client while maintain affordability to promote future business ..and of course, lets not forget the pure physical exhaustion that comes from doing all day what most do at the gym for an hour( I’ve always said that you gotta be a fool to pay for cross fit training when you can can come work for me and get PAID while you TRAIN!…but I digress) – It’s beyond tiring …beyond exhausting…its draining , in every way.

My wife often said earlier in our marriage that “The world gets the BEST of you , and we get the REST “…And for a long time she was right… sometimes , she still is. In the last few years I have focused on whats REALLY important , what I’m REALLY working for – Our family. The bible says ” If a man wont work  , let him not eat”(2 Thes.3:10) and I believe that to be true ,like the rest of the Bible…But when work is put before family , then the family suffers – and I fail not only as a Husband and Father ,but as the Spiritual leader of my home… I made a decision several years ago to not make my family “Second Best” ,but rather give them “My Best” , and not “The Rest”…but even like this , like many of us – I still fail….

How?

Because If I put My family first and work Second – WHERE DO I FIT GOD INTO THE EQUATION?

Does my God deserve any LESS than FIRST in my life ?Did he HOLD anything back from me? Did he not give us HIS BEST?

Give my God “3rd Best” in my life? – God FORBID…

This however , is where many of us end up..Trying to fit God in…. in our “ EXTRA “ time…and its a DISGRACE. ….Ok , so the answer is moving God into “Second Place”...right?

Second Best looks like it ought to work ,but it never does. Second Best feels warm and comfortable ,but leaves us cold and unfulfilled. If we settle for Second Best ,we will never TRULY be satisfied – with Second Best we are destined for failure.

In so many ways we have accepted “Second Best” as an acceptable shelf to sit God on and only come to him when its convenient for us… and this also is a DISGRACE.

You see , the TRUTH is – when I put God FIRST before EVERYTHING ELSE – it gives both a proper order to my life as well as PRIORITY…How So?…

Example 1 – As I have already stated , the line of work that I chose often leaves me with a lackluster attitude to bring home to say the LEAST…but , if I love God MORE than my wife and kids – I will dig down deep to find the guy they NEED me to be for them when I get home… Not because I want to – but because GOD SAID TO! Colossians 3 :19 tells me to “Love my wife and not be harsh with her” and in 1st Peter 3:7 it says
“Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an UNDERSTANDING way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.”…. These are commands because they are NOT easy.

Example 2 – Knowing that I will not always be able to uphold the commands above because of my own weakness , there is an understanding on my wife’s part…. You see – if she loves God MORE than me ,then the days that I can’t uphold these simple commands , the days that
I let her down , the days that I am SIMPLY UNLOVABLE – not only will she love me anyway..but she will STAY WITH ME…(Titus 2:4-5)

With divorce so common in our country today  , its evident that many don’t follow this principle ,but that will be a different post

The Truth IS – when I put God FIRST – then my family is NOT “Second Best” ,but rather an extension of me , and I in them….united in the love of Christ and service to our Creator..

While the road to this point in our lives has not been so black and white , it never the less continues down this path – focused on him and by extension each other..Learning ,growing ,forgiving and loving… It has been a difficult path at times ,but the best paths are…

As we plan to leave the construction industry behind us to focus on working for the cause of Christ – I cant help but think that these past 20 years will only aid us with the lessons we learned along the way about putting our priorities in line and leaving “Second Best “, where it ought to be….behind us.