by Max Dawson<\/p>\n
A man’s first priority should be to “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness<\/em>” (Matthew 6:33). The meaning of that text is to let God reign in your life. Set Him as king in your heart. Seek His plan for making you the righteous person He wants you to be.<\/p>\n While material things have their place in life, Jesus points to our true priority. A man may accrue many things in life – houses, cars, money, and collections of various sorts. While there may be nothing wrong with those things in themselves, such material things cannot be – and must not be – our priority.<\/p>\n King Solomon was a man who accrued all manner of material things. But hear his words in Ecclesiastes 5:11. “So what profit have the owners except to see them with their eyes.<\/em>” Sometimes, the things we own have very little value except to look at. That can be said of pieces of art or of various collections (coins, watches, automobiles, sports memorabilia, etc.). It can even be said of a bank account where money is accrued but never used–and there is no plan to use it. There may be days when these things are only good to look at!<\/p>\n Men, do not let any of those things have the first priority in your life! Seek God as your first priority! If you put any of these other things first, they will become the god that you worship. If you put material things first, you may wind up neglecting your role as a husband and father. God expects you to put your family in a special place!<\/p>\n That brings me to today’s primary thought: Be a good dad. Be a good husband and father. Few roles in life are more important or more rewarding. What a blessing it is to bring children into this world. Solomon said, “Children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward<\/em>” (Psalms 127:3).<\/p>\n A wise man said, “The best gift you can give your children is to love their mother.” What did he mean by that? First, you set an example before your kids that they can follow later in life. Second, your kids can grow up in a loving home, which promotes their well-being. Third, it is God’s plan for you — as the head of your family — to love your wife (the mother of your children). See Ephesians 5:25-29. “Husbands, love your wives<\/em>…”<\/p>\n I suspect you can think of more reasons why men need to have their priorities straight regarding these things. But let me just close with this exhortation: “Men, be real men! Be all that God intended. Love your wife. Be faithful to her. Love your children. Be a real father and bring them up in God’s way.” God will bless you for that.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Max Dawson A man’s first priority should be to “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). The meaning of that text is to let God reign in your life. Set Him as king in your heart. Seek His plan for making you the righteous person He wants you to be.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[778],"class_list":["post-68447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-father"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15737,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-seek-first-the-kingdom-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":68447,"position":0},"title":"How do you seek first the kingdom of God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How do you seek first the kingdom of God? Answer: \"Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88199,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-believe-the-lord-but\/","url_meta":{"origin":68447,"position":1},"title":"I Believe the Lord, But …","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Marvin L. Weir Spiritual matters take priority over worldly matters. Many people who profess to be Christians would angrily protest if they were told they did not believe the Lord. A failure to believe Christ is not a new problem. During His earthly ministry, Jesus said to the Jews,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7656,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-a-young-man-stay-focused\/","url_meta":{"origin":68447,"position":2},"title":"How can a young man stay focused?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am interested in getting your thoughts on being focused on the goal. It is hard when you see so much of the things you want in life, that at times you feel as though that it is not meant for you. My situation appears to be going nowhere.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40453,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-do-volunteer-work-that-may-interfere-with-attending-services\/","url_meta":{"origin":68447,"position":3},"title":"Is it wrong to do volunteer work that may interfere with attending services?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 6, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Jeffrey, I want to ask a question concerning non-government operations (NGOs) and volunteer groups. I have this desire to be part of such organizations and groups to help humans and contribute to society and humanity in general. But my challenge is that it can be time-consuming, which is affecting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4433,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-god-no-longer-a-priority-if-i-visit-other-congregations-to-look-for-a-wife\/","url_meta":{"origin":68447,"position":4},"title":"Is God no longer a priority if I visit other congregations to look for a wife?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 20, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: God must always come first and our mission in life must be Jesus' mission, but how do I deal with the underlying problem of being alone? In the most humble way, I make mention of, yes, He is with us until the end of the age; yes, we will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43089,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/no-other-gods\/","url_meta":{"origin":68447,"position":5},"title":"No Other Gods","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 13, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Isaiah 40:12-26 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Ten Commandments formed the prologue to the Law of Moses \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They were the foundation of the Old Law \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Even though the Law of Moses ended, nine of those ten commandments are still in effect today. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Understanding these basic laws can help\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}