The Things That Matter

As I sit to write today’s blog, I hear the Lord saying, “Time is short.  I’ll be coming back soon. Use your time wisely.” Use my time wisely. For me, two things come to mind with these instructions.

One...

Don’t waste my time with things like stress or worry and being focused on myself.

Two...

Spend my time on things that will matter...that will count….like loving others.

After my father passed away, I heard my mother say that it really bothered her when she would see couples fighting.  Here she is missing her husband greatly and this couple that still has each other is wasting their moments together fighting.  They aren't appreciating the time they have with each other.  She would gladly put up with something that used to be annoying, just to have him back with her again. The things we fight over and get irritated over usually aren’t the things that matter.  

Most parents can probably remember a time when someone told you to enjoy your kids when they are young because the time goes by fast.  At the time, it didn’t seem fast. It seemed like days on end of disciplining, laundry and whining. But in the end, yes, you miss your kids being young and wish you could hold them one more time. The things that mattered were the life lessons, the memories and the love.  

If our time is short, I don’t want to waste it spent on being stressed out and worried.  I want to enjoy the life we have left here and appreciate the people, the time and the memories.  They are after all the only things we can take with us. Yes, I’m certainly looking forward to heaven and the exciting times in store for us in the future.  But there will never be another time in history like there is now.

After the thousand year reign on earth and Satan is loosed again, he’ll be put away for good.  Sounds like there will never be days again that will equal these in challenges to overcome and victories to be won.  Will these be the days we talk about in heaven around the table? Will we say things like, “Remember when we didn’t know where we were going to live because we lost our house?  There was such a battle in the spiritual realm for us to have faith and to speak right. I remember fighting the fight of faith with my favorite Scriptures many times a day! And even though in those days Satan roamed around like a roaring lion looking to devour us, God came through for us mightily.  Remember the house He got us that was so much better than the one we lost?” (True story for me.)

If time is short, I like to think about when I get to heaven and you have that 20/20 hindsight, what do you think your heaven self would say if she could go back to earth self and give some words of advice?  I highly doubt I’d tell myself to clean more, to care more about what others think of my hair, or to make sure I get my point across during an argument no matter the cost. I don’t think my heaven self would come back and say you were right to be so worried and fretful.  No, I think I might tell myself: give yourself away more. Love fully and deeply. Give. Care. Do more for others. Make others feel better about themselves. Think less about yourself and your life. Spend more time on the things that matter.

How about you?  I think we all know the answer to this.  We all can imagine when we are on the other side of all this earthly craziness and pain, and we are in the peace and security of heaven looking back, what we will have wished we had done differently.  So how about you just have that conversation with yourself now and then start living that way because time is short!

Why don’t you write out a list this week on what you think in the end will have mattered?  And then take a look at your life and determine how much of your time is spent on those items.  Where are you spending your energy, thoughts, time, or money that just doesn’t matter? Time is short.  Make the most of the time. Be purposeful to spend it on the things that matter.

On my Facebook page this week, I’ll have a post labeled the things that matter.  I'll share some of my things that matter and I’d love for you to reply to it with a few things that you have determined in your life are the things that matter and where you’ll be spending more of your time and energy.

Looking for a summer Bible study?  In Him: The Hope of Glory is starting July 1st!  It’s free. Click here to check it out.