The Things that Matter
Lots of things recede in importance as you grow older. Sitting in the front seat. Being first. Being popular. Being like other people. Having the latest thing in clothing. Such things are huge for young people. We grow out of them. Adults who don't grow out of them seem immature, like old teenagers.

"One thing is needful," Jesus told Martha, who was very concerned that everything be just so. It turns out that all the hardware we struggle to obtain and maintain isn't what is needful, that what we really need is within us, and has been all the time. Focus on that, and you will have what you need. The rest will take care of itself.

Does that mean you'll quit your job and pray all day instead? That you won't do housework or cook? That you will no longer miss having a special someone in your life? Probably not. You'll still be a human being. But it means you won't become your job, or your house. You won't become your loneliness, so there's nothing to you but that. Things won't take you over in the same way. Not if God has you by the
hand first.

--From "What We Really Need”
by Barbara Crafton

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