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    “You know, the longer I live, the more a lot of that stuff just doesn’t matter much to me anymore. There are just 2 things that are really important!”

    That’s what a good friend, exactly my age, said to me the other day. Before he could finish, I said, “Let me see if I can tell you what they are. First, you want your life to make a difference, especially a difference for God. Second, you want your family to turn out well.”

    “Exactly! Precisely what I was going to say,” he replied.

    Granted that neither of us are old sages, but life has helped us as men, fathers, and disciples to clarify what we really believe matters. It’s not that either of us have wasted our lives on frivolous or unimportant things, it’s just that we’ve been purified and distilled in our convictions as time has past.

There are just 2 things that are really important!

    I laughed because we both remembered City Slickers when Curly told Billy Crystal’s character that just one thing mattered and he had to figure out what that one thing was for himself. I guess we’re not as basic because for us, it was “just 2 things!” But the really challenging part is trying to live those two things.

    Making a difference in the world, especially a difference that honors God, really means that we “seek the Lord’s will in all of our ways.” (cf. Proverbs 3:1-5) We seek to use the gifts and interests he fashioned in us to do the things he would have us do. We seek his guidance and his leading through the Holy Spirit to make the most of every opportunity, to use the time given us appropriately, to influence the circle of relationships we’re in and move them closer to the Lord, and to utilize each day to his praise and glory.

    Having our families turn out well is still a work in progress. I guess it always is. But for our families to turn out well means we have to really make them the priority we claim them to be. That means they move up the ladder in terms of importance in our schedules, prayer life, travel, conversation, and spending. They become the focus. It means I must live my faith in a way before my children that gives me the opportunity to both show and speak about what Jesus means to me.

    In a world full of deadlines and headaches and stressors, isn’t it nice to know that there are “just 2 things” that are important! Just two things. So let’s do them!