One day, an expert on the subject of time management was
speaking to a group of business students and to drive home a point,
used an illustration those students will likely never forget. As
this man stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers
he said, "Okay, time for a quiz." The he pulled out a one-gallon,
wide mouthed mason jar and set it on a table in front of him. He
then produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed
them, one at a time, into the jar.
When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would
fit inside, he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone in the class
said, "Yes."
Then he said, "Really?" He reached under the table and
pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and
shook the jar causing big pieces of gravel to work themselves down
into the spaces between the big rocks.
Then he smiled and asked the group once more. "Is the jar
full?" By this time the class was on to him. "Probably not," one of
them answered.
"Good!" he replied. And he reached under the table and
brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it
went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once
more he asked the question, "Is this jar full?"
"No!" the class shouted. Once again he said, "Good!" Then he
grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it until the jar was
filled to the brim. Then he looked at the class and asked, "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 try really hard, you can
always fit some more things into it."
"No," the speaker replied, "that's not the point. The truth
this illustration teaches us is: If you don't put the big rocks in
first, you'll never get them in at all."
Time is precious. There never seems to be enough of it to go
around to do everything we want to do, so we spend our lives making
choices. It is crucial that we begin with the "big rocks", those
things of greatest importance. That's what Jesus meant when he said,
"But seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and
all these things shall be added to you." (Matthew 6:33).
