I hope this lesson can be of use to youth ministries, family devotionals or family home evenings. Today’s topic is taking advantage of a house of order when accomplishing goals.

With the busy lives we have today, we never seem to have enough time to accomplish the things we would like to achieve. That is why it is a good reason to prioritize our goals so we can get the most bang for our buck. This can be in the realm of finances, education, health, our relationships with others and increasing our spirituality. If we are coming to realize that we can accomplish ALL that we want to do than we’ll want to see what is most important in our lives and prioritize the most important items first. Or we might want to follow a goal that will provide the widest impact for our lives.

Here are some examples in my own life. In the financial realm I recently paid off a big debt. It feels wonderful and because of that, I now have the finances that had been used for that goal to be moved over to another area of concern. I listen to financial advisors who suggest that I should first pay off items that charges the highest interest. As an alternative, I might pay the lowest outstanding bill so that I can see the success more quickly. When the second item is paid off I could use both monies of the past two bills to devote to a third and so on. Paying off a debt and working to be completely debt free would be more desirable than buying a toy and still be in debt and hassling with additional debts related to the new toy. Devoting attention to paying off a bill as quickly as possible is one good way of a house of order.

An alternative might be in education. If I have an opportunity to take a class, that my company would pay for then I get two benefits, I increase my skills for my employee and I am learning new things. Once I learn this new skill, I will have the foundation to learn something new on top of that and thus my house of order in education begins to take shape and benefits myself, my self-esteem and my employer.

For health, in order for me to be able to walk on my tread-mill for an hour, I need to first be able to do it for 15 min, than 30 min. if I get bored then I have something to entertain me while I exercise. Ohhh multi-tasking, what a concept. I gradually build my tolerance by increasing my capability.

Have each family member or student share with the rest of the group a specific goal. Then everyone brainstorm of what would be the small steps and the big steps to accomplish that goal. Some of these goals may touch upon increased spirituality and improving a relationship with a loved one.

OL: All Boxed up:
Items needed: An empty box such as one that held reams of paper and a penny. Then collect all kinds of objects from around the house such as balls, plastic dishes, clothes, smaller boxes, towels, shoes etc. Then collect some materials that are out of date or are no longer used such as old magazines, books, clothes that no longer fit or one shoe.

Next drop all the items into the box until it is over flowing. Do not try to organize things just let them go in as they do. Toss in the penny. With all the things in as they are, it might be hard to find that penny easily unless you have to empty out the entire box.
Next take everything out and start putting things in, in an organized manner. Things that are long and squared might go together to take maximum use of a block of space. One object might fit into another object such as clothes or shoes being put into a smaller box and that way two items in a sense occupy the same space. Books and papers might be lined up together. Clothes might be rolled up to be more compressed to fit. Like items might be stored together for easy access.

An evaluation might be done to see what items in your life are no longer necessary. If you only have one shoe than it might need to be thrown away. If you have old clothes, they might be taken to charity, DI, or goodwill.

So the same can be done with our lives. We might be able to combine goals. If I exercise but also want to listen to audio books, then I might do both at the same time. If I no longer have an interest in a certain hobby I might give those hobby related tools to someone who is interested. If I want to learn a new language such as Spanish, than maybe I’d want to get involved in English as a second language program. The object is that if we plan it out, we can often link similar goals to strengthen them by their association. We can increase our capabilities by line upon line precept upon precept.

Have the group brainstorm on how they could combine different goals in their lives for maximum efficiency.