“Learn to be wise, and develop good judgment.” Proverbs 4:5 NLT
“Keepsakes remind you of special times and special people.”
My thoughts today are about “things gathered along the way.”
Through your life, will acquire and accumulate a lot of things, some valuable but not most. Across your lifetime, you will have keepsakes that remind you of special times and special people. Just days ago, I came across a small box of my Mom’s jewelry, put away after her death. They held little if any intrinsic value – mostly costume jewelry and some of it missing a piece – but I could not help but finger each piece and remember her fondly. It was a few things she had gathered along the way.
You will also find that you gather things; it seems to be in our natures. All might have been useful at a time but have just become stuff, taking up space and no longer useful. A lot of things are like that. Some stuff didn’t serve you well then, and a lot don’t serve you now. Things eventually become stuff, and stuff only becomes clutter. They don’t have lasting value.
Today, I am thinking about what I have gathered along the way that was valuable to me and has become invaluable with the passing of time. True value is rarely lost. It’s value we wrongly assign to things that gets lost along the way. Can you remember anything that you thought you just could not live without that soon was replaced or laid aside as unimportant? Here are some valuable things I have gathered along the way.
My family has become increasingly valuable to me, not wanting to imagine life without them – wife, kids, and grandkids, and a broadening circle of family. They know you and love you anyway. I am better than I would have been without their love and acceptance.
How do you place a value on friends? Friends share your life, your joys and sorrows, your struggles and successes – and remain your friends, just because. New friends are welcome; old friends are irreplaceable, growing dearer and deeper with fleeting years. Some have been companions in the journey; some have been examples and guides along my way. I am more than I would have been without their company and encouragement.
I have learned to value experience, others’ and my own. You don’t get experience from a book; you gain it from living, if you’re observing and learning as you go. Life’s experiences, you will not avoid that. Valuable experience that makes you wiser comes from learning along the way.
A sincere and vibrant faith is priceless. See Ephesians 1:17-21 NKJV. Solomon wrote Proverbs with one clear goal, that his son, and others (that includes you and me), might be wiser than he had been by learning from his mistakes. There are 31 chapters; I recommend that each month you read one chapter a day.
Three words are often repeated in Proverbs: knowledge, understanding and wisdom – those are preeminently invaluable, and come from God. See Psalm 111:10 NLT. “By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.” Proverbs 24:3-4 NIV. Solomon used the building and furnishing of a house as a metaphor for your life, firmly established and richly filled. See 1 John 5:20 NIV/ Colossians 2:2 and 1:9-10 NIV.
My prayer for you today is that you value what’s of lasting and eternal importance.