One day, my father and I were reorganizing the family garage. While working together my dad called me over to the workbench and said, “Hey I want to teach you an important life lesson.” He took a litre container and he placed it on the workbench. Next, he filled the container with golf balls, and then he asked me, “Is the container full?" I said, “Well sure, you can't put any more golf balls in it.” Then he took a bag of coarse pebbles and he poured them into the container so that they worked their way around the golf balls. And the container appeared to be full. Then he asked me, “Is the container full?” And I replied, “Yes it's full.” Next, he took a bag of sand and he poured it into the container. And the sand made its way around the golf balls and the pebbles. And he tapped the container so that the sand spread everywhere. Then he again asked me, “Is the container full?” And again I answered, “Yes it's full.” Finally, he poured a cup of coffee into the container that was full of golf balls, pebbles, and sand.

My dad went on to explain, “This container represents your life. The golf balls are the important things like faith, family, friends, and health. The pebbles are the less important things like career, home, vehicle, education. And the sand represents everything else, the small stuff. Now if you put the sand and pebbles into the container first, there will be no room for the golf balls. The same is true of life. If you spend your life and all of your energy and time on the small stuff, you won't have time for the things that matter. So pay close attention to the things that are critical to your joy and success.” My dad said, “Son take care of the golf balls first. Do what's truly important first.”

I wanted to learn the rest of the lesson about priorities because it's important that the small stuff doesn't control our life. And I asked him, “Well what about the coffee?” And he smiled and said, No matter how full your life may be, there is always room for a coffee with a friend."

Well, integrity guides us in setting our priorities and in living to the full.