A teacher recently gave his high performing students a test. He pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouthed mason jar and set it on a table in front of him. Then he 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 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 onto 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 in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked up at the class and asked, “What is the point of this illustration?”

One of the peak performing students raised her hand and said “I know…. 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.”

The title of this lesson is The Big Rocks of Life. What are the “big rocks” in your life? Your faith? A project that you want to accomplish? Time with your loved ones? Your education, your finances? A cause? Teaching or mentoring others?

Remember to put these BIG ROCKS in first or you’ll never get them in at

all.

——–

So, tonight or in the morning when you are reflecting on this short

story, ask yourself this question: What are the “big rocks” in my life? Then, put those in your jar tomorrow.

– Author Unknown