What really matters?

its the simple things….the “things” that can’t be bought…

like this wind caressing warm May afternoon spent walking in the yard with my barefoot baby.

or admiring the beauty of my new hanging plants and
the sweet smelling roses in the back yard…

What really matters isn’t the ever bustling desire to get ahead in this life – where ever “ahead” might be.

What really doesn’t matter is the selfish desires people pursue in a vain attempt to gain favor with “man” instead of God. Competitive natures of people have created many miserable striving souls in this world.

What really matters is slowing down long enough to hear God, because He really does speak to us. We just aren’t listening most of the time.

I’m living at a slower pace these days…still getting “much done” and being a very productive member of this world – caring for my family and keeping the “home fires burning.” But, I’m not at all concerned with the fur-frazzling rodent race of competition to have the most “perfect” of anything. 

I do enough, yet at times I forget this and find myself striving again, lose my contentment, and have to remind myself that I am enough – God’s love for me is unconditional even if the love of others is not. His grace is enough, therefore, I am enough. 

My walk in the  warm May wind with my precious barefoot baby was worth more to me than anyone’s highest praise for any of my efforts although they yield much.

Someone once told me (in reference to her house) – “no one will remember what kind of housekeeper I was at my funeral, but they will remember how I spent time with them while they were in my home.” This lady would sit down with her family and friends while they were visiting rather than bustle around cleaning up after them. She passed away suddenly several years later and I never forgot what she said.  She was right- no one even mentioned that her housekeeping efforts weren’t always “perfect“(whatever that’s supposed to be).

Today is another one of those beautiful Spring days. I’m going to live it intentionally and savor it, rather than try to press as much work into it as can be achieved without really enjoying the moments as they come. Life isn’t only about what we accomplish. Its much much more than this – deeper than our petty daily successes.

My little 8 year old daughter is constantly wishing for her next moment…”what are we doing next, Mommy” she says all day long. I remind her to “live in the moment” and to stop pressing on to the next moment, activity, or day….she’s so busy pressing towards the next activity that she misses the one she’s supposed to be in. How many of us are doing this? Wishing and pushing away our days because there “just must be something better around the corner?”

What really matters?– Love, that fact that life is a miracle, and the wonder of who God is and what He’s done for us. What really matters are all those things that we often wish away or take for granted.

So, today, stop and smell the roses (or wildflowers) and take in the beauty of the moment. Relish God’s creation, His mercy, and all the things in this life He gives us that we so often overlook due to our own “agendas.”