Over Labor Day weekend, I lost my phone in the lake.

It wasn’t quite as stupid as it sounds. 🙂

I took a small boat and paddled 3 of my youngest sons out onto the lake. Just as we got near some cousins of ours that were swimming in water about 6 feet deep, one little guy cried out, “I’ve got a hook in my foot!” A treble hook had grabbed his foot from a lost fishing lure on the bottom of the lake. I quickly paddled close, and he grabbed the side of the boat.

Our boat started drifting from momentum and wind. He grimaced and yelled, “It’s still attached to the fishing line!”

I leaped up from my seat in the bottom of the boat to cut the fishing line that now had him tied to the rocks on the bottom — in water that was over his head! As I leaped up, my cell phone clip hit the side of the boat and ejected my (non-insured) phone right into the lake. I watched it bubble down out of sight in the murky water.

You know that feeling when you watch something like that? 

Your mind flips through options.

I can’t leave the kid with the hook in his foot. My 11 year old is in the boat with me, but can’t have him jumping in while I don’t know what is down there.

It takes a while to type that, but it all flitted through my mind in a half-second.

I was doing “triage” — quickly

• sorting values
• deciding what needs action in this moment.

We do this values triage that all the time.

• We do it when the phone rings, and we’re with our wife. What’s important now?
• We do it when we’re watching Youtube and our kids interrupt. What’s most valuable right now?
• We do it when we’re tired and someone wants to talk. What’s most important now?
• We also do it when there’s no plan for discipleship, and we have urgent things screaming in our ears, like mowing the church lawn. 🙂

So what is the solution to being able to quickly and effectively triage those moments?

It comes down to one word:

VALUES.

Think about it.

If I had been floating along alone on the lake, I’d have jumped right in. I didn’t want that moment to cost me $800!

But I wasn’t out there alone. I was floating along on the lake with 3 of my boys, who mean more to me than life itself, let alone some stupid phone. I was trying to help another little boy whose life was worth infinitely more than dropping a few hundred dollars.

A solid value system will create the kind of clarity that you need in those kinds of moments.

You desperately need this in order to create a solid plan for discipling your children, for educating new believers in your church, and for so many other activites.

The bottom line is, you’re always going to have OPTIONS. That’s one of the things the world is always going to give you. Infinite options! Did you know that it would take you 6 months to watch all the videos uploaded to Youtube in the last 60 seconds?

Oh yeah. You’ve got options.

But do you have VALUES?

• Do you value training your children?
• Do you value teaching your kids to memorize Scripture?
• Do you value connecting with your wife?
• Do you value teaching your believers how to have a meaningful devotional life?
• Do you value helping new Christians learn what it means to obey Jesus?

I’ve been doing NewStart Discipleship for a little over 2 years now. I just created a brand new module called Discipleship In the Home.

The reason? Values.

It’s one thing to talk about valuing discipleship and creating a culture of discipleship in your local church. But ultimately, you’re going to need to show those values when other important things — maybe even valuable things — have to go to the bottom of the lake in order for your greatest values to shine.

Think through your values.

It will help when the time for crisis triage comes!