The Way to Weigh Values
Values are simply the things we hold to be important, while core values are what we embrace as most important. Just as I said last week, the things we value are what we spend most of our time and energies on.
This is why it is important to learn how to measure and weigh the different values presented to us. The way traders in the past weighed their goods to know the fair value of an exchange, we need to learn how to weigh things properly to know what’s truly valuable.
An Internal Weighing Scale
In order to store the right values into our daily boxcars, it is essential to have a way to weigh what is valuable and what is not; what is a waste of time and what is not. This eliminates burning our time uselessly on things that have little or no value.
So, how do we determine what is valuable and what is not? The Bible tells that we have an internal weighing scale that we often use in life: our hearts.
We knowingly or unknowingly pursue the things that are our hearts are drawn to because these are what we value or love. When Jesus spoke about the two highest values on earth, God and money, he uses the language of the heart: “hate, love, devoted, despise and serve.”
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Matthew 6:24)
Jesus was showing us that when it comes to choosing values, what influences people aren’t just our minds and intellect but our hearts.
…But our hearts have a problem.
The Problem
The Bible tells us that “… Above all things the heart is most deceitful.” (Jeremiah 17:9)
Why do some children value video games over homework? Why do husbands spend hours watching a man with a stick put a ball into a hole in the ground instead of spending time with their wives? Why do we eat six times a day but exercise only once a month? Why do we value money over God? The simple answer is that our weighing scales are faulty.
This poses a serious predicament for us. If our hearts determine our values, then we are in big trouble.
The Master Calibrator
So what do we do?
We have to recalibrate our hearts, similar to how weighing scales need to be checked and readjusted. To recalibrate means to readjust our hearts to be able to accurately discern the correct standards of what is valuable. We do this with our hearts by willingly coming to God and asking Him to be the One to set the standards of our values.
God is the master calibrator. Only He is able to correct our standards of values. This He does by setting our hearts to the best and truest of standards: His Word. Over the course of this series, we will look at the words of Jesus in Matthew 6. His words are the proven weights that will allow our hearts to be recalibrated to know what is truly valuable.
See you next week.
PS. If you missed last week’s article, you are not late. We just got started – click here: The Values Driven Heart
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