Down below you will find a values and standards chart. Completing this simple exercise will likely reveal a great deal about yourself.

Before you start filling out the chart below, begin by asking yourself three questions:

In answering the first question, it's important to be very honest with yourself. It's important to write down YOUR values--not anyone else's. Value means something that you personally place value on. If you do not care about it, then it isn't really a value.

As you explore this question, it's possible that you may not like your values. As you take the time to look at your life and see what your true values are, you may find, for example, that you value spending five hours a day watching television. Or maybe you value gossipping or always appearing to be right. If these are the things you truly value, write them down. They don't have to be pleasant, but they do need to be honest. If you are unclear about anything, in your prayer time today, you may want to ask God to reveal your true values to yourself.

After you are clear about your current values, ask yourself the second question:  What does God want me to value?  To adequately answer this question, you will certainly need to spend time in prayer before the Lord. If you have been genuinely walking with the Lord for some time, there's a good chance that your first list and your second list will be very similar. However, most people will probably find that these two lists are quite different.

This whole process may take several days--or even weeks. Once you have answered the first two questions and you have a sense of your current values and what God wants you to value, you may find it difficult to move on to the third question. You might expand it in this way:  In light of what I currently value and what God wants me to value, what do I want to value from now on?  If you are reading this article, I would imagine that you probably want your values to be in line with God's. But there's a good chance that they may not actually be in line with His at the moment. If this is the case, don't get discouraged. If you sense that God wants something to be a value in your life, but you don't currently think it's important, be honest with Him. Simply say, "God, I sense that this is important to You, but to be perfectly honest, I do not currently value it in the same way." The Bible says, "Be transformed by the renewing of the mind" (Rom. 12:1). Once we receive Christ, we still have many things in our life that are not in line with God's will. If our mind was already perfectly in line with God's, we would need to be transformed. This is encouraging!

Therefore, it is important to realize that it may take some time for the Lord to help you value things in the same way that He does. It will not help you or God if you pretend to place value on something that you do not, so just be completely honest. As you take each of these matters before God, bit by bit, He will help you have the same answers for all three questions.  Once again, this may take several weeks. Be patient. The time will be worth it.

Once you have figured out what your true values are, then you are ready to fill out the first column of the chart below.

Column 1 I am a person who... (personal value)	Column 2 Therefore, I choose to... (personal standard)
1. Respects others
2. Serves God
3. Cares for my friends
4. Takes care of my body
5. Is honest
6. Maintains good finances
7. Enjoys life
8. Takes care of my mental health

The first eight items on this list are simply examples of what you might put down. The list will different for each individual.

After you have completed the first column, move to the second column--your standards. After you have your values settled, then you can write down your personal standards. "I am a person who...  Therefore, I choose to..." You may have several standards for each value.  For example, if you wrote, "I am a person who serves God," then you might write, "Therefore, I choose to:  1) study my Bible every morning; 2) pray every morning; 3) actively serve the believers in my local church."
 
I know one person who has a value of "appreciating nature". He feels more connected to God when he is surrounded by His creation. The man's first column says, "I am a person who appreciates nature." The second column says, "Therefore, I choose to take at least a little bit of time everyday to go outdoors for no other reason than to appreciate God's creation."

Whatever your values may be, I invite you to consider taking time to explore them and really examine what's truly important to you. As you do so, it will likely bring a great deal of clarity to many different areas of life.

Did you enjoy this article?  Please contact us and let us know how it has helped you. Also feel free to let us know how we could improve our articles or give suggestions for topics you would like to see in the future.