What really matters

Sometimes I get so caught up in my schedule, I catch myself forgetting what really matters. Last weekend we went to Minnesota. It was a wonderful trip! We were to have a company meeting in Glenwood on Monday, and it just so happened our oldest daughter had to get back to St. Paul to start classes at the same time. So we decided to hop in the car and follow her back on Saturday so we could relax in a hotel, go to Mall of America, and just enjoy some time with her before dropping her off at the dorms. Every moment of this will be a treasure in my heart for the rest of my life.

Sunday night, we were heading to St. Paul to her dorm room and we got stuck in some really heavy traffic. This is when I found myself getting annoyed. Apparently there was an accident up ahead and all the cars were trying to squeeze into one lane. It took quite a long time to get by, and it's probably a good thing because it gave me some much-needed time to think. There was an accident up ahead and I was irritated that it was inconveniencing me. I had NO IDEA if the accident was a fender-bender or if some families lives were going to be forever altered because they lost a loved one. I've seen what this does to a family. And suddenly my schedule didn't matter anymore.

My mind went back to when my daughter's boyfriend was killed in a car accident a few years ago. He and his brother stopped in to talk to their mom, and on their way home they slid into an oncoming car. His mother had absolutely no idea that would be the last time she would see her son alive.

After things like this happen, we are acutely aware of what matters. And we think we'll never, ever forget. But somehow it gradually fades. We are beings that naturally gravitate toward taking things (life) for granted. We find ourselves having to REMIND ourselves to be grateful, to pay attention to what matters, to let go of the things that don't.

In Ephesians 5:17 it says Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. If it were possible to determine how much of what we do is done thoughtlessly, I wonder what the percentages would be. Even if we didn't do anything bad, if we had taken the time to understand what the Lord wanted us to do in that situation, would we have done things the same way?

Life is so precious. The time we have here is so precious. None of us can possibly know what's ahead. I want to pay closer attention to what really matters. I want to be able to loosen my grasp on what doesn't. I want to be so in tune with my Father that as I am living my life I understand what He wants me to do.

Because whatever it is that He wants me to do, it will be something that definitely matters.