Considering what's important

Defining what is important is, on one hand, very easy.  One simply has to say, "loving God and loving neighbor."  But this answer is far too abstract to really be of any help.  But these things must be fleshed out to be applied to practice.
The thought of what is important can take on a different perspective when it comes to communicating this to someone else.  We can use our words, and this is the easiest way to communicate, for one can easily lie (either deliberately or unconsciously).  We can also communicate what is important by how we spend our time and money.  This way, someone else interprets our actions and can identify what they think we think is important.  But there is a fairly large potential for error, for someone else cannot really know why someone else is doing something.
If we want to communicate what is important to our children it must be a combination of the two, in a very definite manner.  Those things that we do, that we make a big effort to do, even in the face of inconvenience and cost, communicate to our children that it is important.  Do we make a point of setting aside time to pray, regularly, even when we are tired?  Do we plan on, way in advance, to watch a particular sporting event?  Do we hang up icons in appropriate places in our home?  Do we hang up "12" signs in our windows or vehicles?  I am not going to comment on the appropriateness or inappropriateness of these things, but these do require communication with our children.  Because our fallen state inclines to the things of the flesh, anything we do, whether actually important or not, will be seen by our children, and the weight that appears to be associated with them will communicate a message to our children.
So what does this all mean?  It means that everything we do, whether actually important or not, if appearing as important, will be defined as important, and our children will respond in like.  This means we had better be articulate and well thought out in our actions, for we are communicating through them.  Our children will love what we appear to love.