Our daughter Leah and I are reading through Jon Acuff’s book, Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, Do Work That Matters. It’s a great book if you feel stalled in your personal or professional life. Since graduating from our homeschool, Leah isn’t sure what she wants to do regarding a job, career or ministry, so I ordered this book which is part of Dave Ramsey’s Graduate’s Survival Guide. Today’s reading was about rocks versus diamonds. Jon writes that you have to decide what in your life is going to be a diamond and what’s going to be a rock.
Jon writes that while he traveled with his family during their annual trip to see their in-laws, they went gem mining in a small mountain community in Boone, North Carolina. A geologist, who was getting his degree in geology at a local university and was very knowledgeable, taught them how the forces of nature inside the earth create each type of stone.
Using a small flashlight and shining it into a rock, he revealed the green hue of an emerald hidden inside. Washing crusted dust off rock, he showed the amethyst hiding below the surface.
Jon writes: “The rocks were beautiful, with explosions of color and light that seemed to rival that of more expensive stones like rubies and diamonds. But at the end of the day, they were just rocks. So he placed them in an old plastic bag, wrote my daughter’s name on the outside with a Sharpie, and handed it back to her. As we drove home, I started to wonder, Why do some rocks get to be rocks and some rocks get to be diamonds?”
Jon’s conclusion is that somebody decided that’s how it works: its value is assigned to it by society. You get to decide what is a “diamond” (of high value) in your life and what is a “rock” (of low value).
For me, it’s God, family, health, my spiritual gifts/talents/dreams/purpose, friends, traveling, books, nature, music..and sometimes eating out Mexican. 🙂
The way you tell what your most important priorities are in life is through your most valuable currency-your time (and I’d add to that, your attention and your money).
God views YOU as His precious diamond. He loved you so much that He sent His Son Jesus to die and rise again for you, to save you. “See, I have written your name on the palms of My hands.” – Isaiah 49:16, NLT
What are your diamonds? What are your rocks? Leave your comments below.
