"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." (Matt. 6:33)

The teacher pulled out a bucket and set it on the table in front of him. He then pulled out several fist-sized rocks and carefully pilled them into the bucket. When the bucket was filled to the top, he asked his class, "Is this bucket full?" Everyone in the class said, "Yes." The teacher said, "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a sack of gravel and dumped some into the bucket, and shaking it, he caused the pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks.

He smiled, and again asked the class "Is the bucket full?" By this time, the class was onto him. "Probably not," one of them answered." "Good," he replied. Again, he reached under the table and brought out sack of sand. He started dumping the sand into the bucket and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel.

Once more he asked, "Is this bucket full?" "No," the class shouted. Again, he said, "Good." Then, he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour into the bucket until it was full to the brim.

He then said, "I'm trying to teach a lesson on priorities. What is the point of this illustration?" One eager beaver raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you really try hard, you can always fit some more things into it." The teacher replied, "No, that's not the point. The point is: if you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all."

Let us put the kingdom of God and His righteousness first in our lives.