I recently read an article in which a mother of three wrote saying it has always bothered her when she hears the emergency announcements on airplanes telling everyone to grab their own oxygen masks before they assist their children. Her concern was that children seem so much more vulnerable than adults. The host columnist responded by explaining that if a depressurization occurs on board (when oxygen becomes scarce on a flight), we have only about "18 seconds of useful consciousness."
She continued by saying "useful consciousness" is the time before physical and mental functioning deteriorates to the point where we cannot take care of ourselves. Obviously, if a parent loses useful consciousness, she won't be able to take care of her child. A doctor explained that if children lose consciousness, they normally have three to seven minutes in which they can be revived without lasting side effects. So, on an airplane, when the parent generally has 18 seconds to figure it all out, the math makes sense for the parent to put on her mask first and then attend to her child.
A clever Southwest Airline employee said the actual emergency instructions should be changed to "Should the cabin lose pressure, oxygen masks will drop from the overhead area. Please place the bag over your own mouth and nose before assisting children or adults acting like children."
Jim Rohn, a successful and widely known motivation speaker, often says that his father used to tell him, "Son, right after me, you come first." As humorous as that seems, Mr. Rohn's father was not trying to teach his son to be selfish, but to be responsible. The lesson he learned was that if he would take care of himself, (mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, materially, etc), he would be healthy enough to take care of others.
Jesus taught that to be great in God's kingdom we must learn to be the servant of others (Matthew 20:26-27). Paul taught that we should prefer one another (Philippians 2:3) or in other words, put our brother or sister before ourselves. This does not in anyway contradict what has already been said. On the contrary, how can we pray with another, if we have not prayed for ourselves first? How can we encourage another, if we have not, like David, first encouraged ourselves in the Lord? (1 Samual 30:6) How can we reach the lost if we have not first been found ourselves? Do we do others well, if when we are told to "love our neighbor as ourself" we do not first love ourselves?
I once learned that the word JOY was an acronym that stood for Jesus first, Others second and Yourself last and I agree I with that. We must be selfless and not self-centered and willing to do all we can to serve our fellow man. But let's not forget to take care of the one who will be doing the caring. The best chance we will have to help others will be in giving our whole hearts to God! First and foremost!
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