Morning Reset: Choosing The Right Priorities

Ever feel like you’re doing more and enjoying less? We open with Lamentations 3:40—“Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord”—and use it as a compass to examine how our daily choices drift from our deepest values. Then we read “The Paradox of Our Age” by Dr. Bob Moorhead, a piercing list that captures modern life’s contradictions: taller buildings but shorter tempers, bigger houses but smaller families, more information but less wisdom. It’s a mirror and a wake‑up call.
If you’re ready for a five‑minute reset that brings clarity to clutter, this reflection will help you take a thoughtful breath, check your heart, and choose what matters most. Subscribe for weekday reflections, share this episode with a friend who could use a calm start, and leave a review to tell us what habit you’re reordering today.

Transcript

Lamentations And Doing It Our Way

The Paradox Of Our Age Reading

Gut Check And Right Priorities

Closing And Invitation

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Good morning and welcome to Starting Right. I am Danny Mack, and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right. In the Old Testament Book of Lamentations, in the third chapter in the fortieth verse, it says, Let us search and try our ways and then turn again to the Lord. Now that verse probably was not written with an intent to make us laugh, but quite honestly when I read it, it made me smile. Because what God is saying to us is, You want to do it your way? Go ahead, give it a try, see what happens, and then in the end, we know you're going to turn around and have to come back to me because your way just is not going to work. Sometimes we're striving for the best and we miss the mark completely because we're not letting God lead us and work in us. I came across this piece written by Dr. Bob Moorhead. It's called The Paradox of Our Age. And in it it talks about how we as a human race have tried our own ways to accomplish the very best, and in how many ways we find ourselves failing. Listen carefully, and you might even hear something that relates to exactly where you are. I know I heard it. It goes like this We have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways but narrower viewpoints. We spend more but have less. We buy more but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, but more problems. More medicine but less wellness. We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry too quickly, stay up too late, get up too tired, pray too seldom, and watch too much TV. We have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom and lie too often. We've learned how to make a living but not a life. We've added years to life, but not life to years. We've been to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We've conquered outer space, but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things. We've cleaned up the air but polluted the soul. We've split the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more but learn less, plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We have higher incomes but lower morals, more food, but less appeasement, more acquaintances but fewer friends, more effort, but less success. These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, tall men and short character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the times of world peace but domestic warfare, more leisure and less fun, more kinds of food but less nutrition. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, of fancier houses but broken homes. These are the days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer to quiet to kill. It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stock room. Today many want to gain the world at the mere expense of their souls. Evil is contemplated and performed with both hands, and yet we cannot lift our finger to help our fellow man. May God have mercy on our souls. Pray without ceasing. Let each of us examine our own ways. It's common for us to try and find fulfillment and happiness in our own wisdom and in our own ways. We may be able to accomplish some great things, but are they the right things? We may be able to do some things on our own, we may be able to have a big home, we may be able to have the boat and the car and the vacations, we may be able to have all of that. But really is that the most important thing? This morning, let's just do a gut check, a check on our motives and our hearts, and let us examine our own ways and make sure that what we are doing is in line with what is the right priority for us in our lives. Because that is when we will find the greatest blessing from God and the greatest joy in our lives, when we are doing things his way and allowing him to work in his timing. Have a great day, my friends. We will talk again tomorrow. Thank you for listening today. And I invite you to join me Monday to Friday right here on Starting Right with Danny Mack.