what really matters?

glimpses from the past week -
- working with Love Lives Here last Thursday night - wow, thank you God for teaching me and allowing me to see how beautiful people are to you
- feeling the warm sun on my skin (even if it made this 51 year old swet!)
- texts from my kids - what would I do without the love and friendship of my four kids?
- visits with family - Thank you God for extended family visits - which happened over two lunches, a supper, and a breakfast! (and coffee in between!)
- a few good laughs!
- watching trees bend before and during the storm - Lord God - you speak through creation!
- walking at our new land - Thank you Lord for your Vision entrusted to me - Lord may you find me faithful and bold!
- lunch with Kim and Linda (many good laughs!)
- an impromtu coffee with Vi and Diane at Mountain Bean (thank you Lord for old friends)
- an impromtu drop-in from Jeanne - thank you Lord for a big hug!
- an amazing and delicious supper with Karis and Frank - Lord, thank you for their friendship - bless their relationship!
- and then of course there are the great coffee times with the staff at church - this week it is all women! Many laughs around the table!!
- and my husband - who continues to love me day in, day out - and tell me how much I mean to him, Thank you God for my man!

There are many more glimpses from the past week - but those are just some of them.
As I was telling someone yesterday - my life is all seen differently now since my Grandson's birth. Very differently! Through a much different lens. Then, I came to my computer this morning, and found the daily email from Grief Share
and just knew that I needed to share it with you because it is about what really matters.

What Really Matters?


Grief has a way of shaping you and turning your attention away from the busyness of life to what really matters. People in today's fast-paced culture do not stop long enough to contemplate the significant questions of life.

What is important in life?

Look at the big picture. Your life on earth encompasses a short time frame when compared to eternal life. You are an eternal being. You are made to live forever. Keep this in perspective.

So the question best asked is, what is important in this life that will extend into eternity?

Dr. Joseph Stowell emphasizes the importance of living today in light of the world to come: "When you really embrace the world to come and bring it back into the world of your own life, everything is radically rearranged. One of the things that is rearranged is your values. For instance, this world tends to value self, tends to value things, and tends to value accomplishment and personal success.

"When you're really committed to the world to come and understand the depth and importance of it, you begin to value other things—like people. People are the only things going on to eternity. So I tend to value my children differently; I tend to value my neighbors differently; I tend to see the people I work with differently. I see them in light of their own eternal destiny."

Do not be uninformed about life's significance.

"It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart" (Ecclesiastes 7:2).

Living God, teach me to open my heart and embrace the knowledge that life after death is an important reality that must be acknowledged in my daily life. Help me to live my life in light of eternity. Amen.


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