My Dear Daughters: Chapter 7: What Matters Most

 I was originally going to call this chapter 'what really matters', but that makes it sound like all the other things I've addressed don't really matter.

Of course character, education, vocation and pastimes matter. They don't matter as much as eternity though. Your experience of those four things might be bad (hopefully not!). Even so, you could still gain eternal life.

Perhaps you'll have unrighteous characters. Yet Jesus promised that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be happily filled with it.

You might get a good education (hopefully). Most importantly, may you be able to echo John Newton's dying words, 'I don't know much, but I know I'm a great sinner, and Christ is a great Saviour'.

Maybe you'll have poorly paid jobs, although I would like to think you'll be paid well for good jobs. 'Blessed are the poor' Jesus said, 'for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven'.

We're to love God wholeheartedly, and to love one another as we love ourselves. Even that's not the most important thing though. We fail to love God and others as we ought.

Thankfully, we love because God first loved us. He demonstrated His love in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We are to love one another even as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us.

We're not to be like Martha, who got distracted by important things. We're to be like Mary, who knew that the most important thing is to sit at Jesus's feet and to learn from Him.

Of course, Jesus isn't physically around to sit at the feet of. Nonetheless, we have His word, the Bible, and can receive His Holy Spirit to help us to understand and to put it into practice in our lives.

Christ will return to judge the living and the dead. We need to be ready for that great day. Because He gave His life for us on the cross, we can have hope of being accepted by Him.