The professor walked confidently into his class. “Today is going to be a great day,” he thought to himself. Students shuffled into their seats and noticed he had brought some rather unusual items with him to class – an empty glass jar, a Ziploc bag of large rocks, a sandwich bag of medium-sized rocks and a sandwich bag of fine sand.

He took the large empty glass jar and started to fill it with the massive rocks. Then the professor asked his students, “Is the jar full?” They all nodded in agreement that it was. He picked up the sandwich bag of medium-sized rocks and emptied it into the seemingly full jar. He picked up the glass jar and shook it gently such that the medium-sized rocks filled up all the vacant spaces between the large rocks. He asked the students again, “Is the jar full?” They glanced at one another and all shouted “Yes” this time. Next, he reached for the sandwich bag containing the fine sand and poured into the large glass jar. The fine sand trickled down the jar, filling up all the available air pockets within the jar.

The moral of the story is our priorities in life fall into three main categories - the large rocks, medium sized rocks and sand. Our spiritual lives, prayer, family, friends and our health are large rocks. These are things we should never attempt to live without. The medium-sized rocks include our businesses or jobs, our houses and our cars. The sand represent the small stuff - the things that we do when the large and medium-sized rocks are all taken care of. They include watching television or being on internet for leisure. If we make the mistake of making the sand the focus of our lives, there will be no room for the more important things.

Tackle the large rocks first. The medium-sized rocks are also important but don't make the mistake of making the sands of life your main priority.