Priorities, Values, and Whatnots…
I stood at the bus stop, waiting patiently for a korope or even okada to take me to the next bus stop as I find my way to the office for my 9–5 job, this is the part I hate about commuting daily.
*korope: a 7-seater bus, *okada: a bike
I had stood for 5–10 minutes waiting and hoping for a miracle, when these two old men walked past me, at first, I didn’t notice them, but a few seconds after they walked past me, their scent hit me and I couldn’t help but wonder if they took their bathe that morning because it was obvious that they were heading to the workplace(the bus stop) to resume for the day.
From their appearance, I could tell that they were beggars who barely had a place to call home, but were unbothered about that, as long as they can get their daily meals sorted, all is well and good.
People like that are unbothered about the things that bother a regular man.
Another instance!
I was on a bus on my way out when I caught myself watching a set of beggars by the roadside. This particular beggar was washing his hand after eating and when I looked at the water content in his bottle with him, I’m perplexed, why are they unbothered about drinking healthy water, at least they make money from begging passerby, why can’t they spend that money on keeping healthy. I could go on and on with many examples but it still doesn’t change their lifestyle.
The answer is simple, PRIORITY. Their priority is not to drink good or healthy water but to have enough to afford food or water and maybe to afford enough to send home to their families.
The Bible was right after all when he said where a man’s heart is, there will his treasure be (Checked my bible and realized I quoted the wrong thing but I won’t change it 😂 😂).
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” (Matthew 6:21)
Aside from these beggars, I’ve seen people who don’t think they should save, as long as they have enough to eat and drink, the same way I’ve seen people who don’t have enough and yet still go ahead to save and also people who have enough and will still save because their priority is to build wealth.
On this same priority, the things we call expensive and say we can’t afford is partly because it is not our priority. Yes, imagine going to a bookstore and purchasing a book for #100,000, and this same you will find an aso-ebi of #50,000 expensive simply because it does not give you value and as such is not a priority for you.
*aso-ebi- family attire
When you understand that people have priorities totally unrelated to yours, and also what they consider as a value may not be the same as yours, you will learn to respect their decisions and opinion. Because they don’t see value in what you are proffering doesn’t make them less your friend, in fact, one of the qualities you should look out for when selecting your friends is the alignment of values, their values define what their priority will be.
If they see value in drinking clean water, they will make it a priority, the same way if they see value in traveling by air for 1 hour instead of 10 hours by road, they will make provisions for it to be a priority.
I didn’t say all of this to convince you that you and your friends should have the same priority, but it’s important that you share common values especially if you want your friendship to grow. The common values should be the foundation of whatever you want to build.
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