I shared this weekend about how my family passes our priorities through 3 filters: God, family, and our goal to be debt-free.  I'd recommend heading over to that post on priorities before reading on.  It's ok…  I'll wait…

Ok.  So, how do you determine what your priorities should be?

Ten Starting Points for Determining Your Priorities

1. God needs to be at the center of your life. Everything that you do needs to flow out of your relationship with God.
2. Scripture. The Bible is God's special revelation to us. There are universal mandates and Truths that you need to determine how to specifically apply in your life.
3. Prayer. This is our ongoing conversation with God.
4. Spiritual Gifts. God has given you unique gifts to be used for His service. See Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4 for lists of spiritual gifts. There are various “tests” that you can take to help guide you to an understanding of your gifts.
5. Strengths and talents. You're uniquely wired with special abilities and desires to do well at certain things.  Figure out what those are. I recommend any of Marcus Buckingham's books as a good first step in determine your strengths.
6. Experiences. You've gone through unique things in your life that have made you who you are.  2 Corinthians 1:3-4 tells us that we're supposed to use those experiences to comfort others. Is there something in your life that points to what your priorities should be?  For me, I wrote Finding Joy in Depression out of my experiences and a desire to encourage those dealing with depression. This is a priority that came out of my experiences.
7. Spouse. What does your spouse think your priorities should be? How does he fit into those priorities?
8. Family. Do you have kids? Extended family? How does these people play into your priorities?
9. Current circumstances and needs. I'm a stay at home mom who doesn't regularly have a car available during the day. My priorities can't regularly fall in times and places that I can't possibly be. What are your regular limitations that need to be worked with or around?
10. Flexibility. Sometimes God throws everything out the window and calls you to do something that seems crazy. If you've been working on #1-9 and regularly and filtering the things that you do and decisions that need to be made through those lens, you'll be ready when God says that something that doesn't normally fit is urgent and takes priority today.

Happy prioritizing!  Got an additional suggestion or a way that God has shown you how to use one of these starting points? Let's talk about it in the comments.