What Really Matters

I have a magnet on my fridge which has the picture of this remarkable lady and one of my favorite quotes.


"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails.
I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp.
I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenk's lawn.
I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children.
I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and tears of a friend on my shoulder.
I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived." -Marjorie Hinckley


I keep it where I can see it and remind myself that when I meet my Father in Heaven what will matter isn't how many times a week I actually blow dry my hair or apply make-up. It won't matter whether I am crafty or can sew. He won't care if I was an expert baker, cook, singer, dancer, cake decorator, or scrapbooker. It won't matter if my house was beautifully decorated or if my closet was filled with the seasons latest fashion trends. It will not matter how many creative and inventive scenes I set up for our Elf on the Shelf. It won't matter where I lived, traveled, what I drove, or how much was in my bank account. He will not even care how my life compared to others.

What will really matter is how I lived my life? Who did I help? What did I do to love others? How did I effect change in another person's life for good? Was I really there? Did I really live? Did I do my best? Did I fashion my life, as best as I could, after the One who's birth we will celebrate and reverence this Sunday?