Deuteronomy 6:5-9;14-16 which Dr. Eckleburg quoted stresses the diligence required to keep our priorities straight - think the Great Commandment with every conscious moment, teach it, speak it, write it on our hands and between our eyes, put it on the posts of our house and our gates.
We mortals are small-minded and easily distracted - the media yells "watch the birdie" and we do. We "rubber-neck" over all kinds of things. We stub our toe and that becomes the most important thing in the world.
Truly, only one command is first, only one command is great:
Some might be helped by wrapping a string around their finger or carrying a pebble in their shoe to cause them discomfort. Some might train their minds to think of Jesus with every breath they take.
Some might leave notes to themselves on their todo lists, shopping lists and other places around the house. I confess to doing this, I write NWK on every puzzle I work (because they are 'watch the birdie' to me) --- repeating the priority from the Lord's Prayer: Thy Name be hallowed, thy will be done, thy kingdom come.
To GOD be the glory, not man!
Mad Dawg, Psalms 115 begins with the perfect thought to finish this sidebar, quoting verse 1:
This is the meaning of life, the purpose for our existence:
AMEN! How can anyone go wrong by believing that fact and living that fact?
And frankly, it's a lot easier to say we believe Matthew 22 than to really truly live it. Sometimes it takes a lot of years to realize just how difficult that proposition is, how much we are pulled in other directions, how little we actually acknowledge His hand in our lives.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." -- Ephesians 1:17-23"That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
"far above...every name that is named..."