I’m getting older (please note I said older, not old!). Everyday that passes is a day of thanksgiving to God for another day of life: another day to enjoy the plethora of blessings I consistently receive from the hand of a very generous, gracious Father in heaven.

As I get older, my thoughts about the important things in life have drastically changed. As I write this blog, I am sitting in the living room of my son and his family in Texas. I am watching my two grandsons, Luke and Levi, and enjoying immensely this brief bit of time we have to share with them.

And, I’m thinking. Or, should I say, rethinking. Rethinking priorities. Rethinking those things that have been so important to me in the past, and reevaluating them in light of the present. As I do this, I have become convinced that things that at one time were so very important to me are no longer the least bit significant. As a matter of fact, I have pretty much reduced my priorities to two very important things: faith and family. This may sound a bit self-centered, but allow me to explain.

First of all, let’s think about faith. As time passes on, I am realizing more and more how important faith is to me. Faith in something much larger, much greater, than me. In my 66 years of life, I have observed so many things, some of which would have shattered my faith had I focused on those events rather than on the One who is in control of those events.

Faith allows us to see the unseen. To hear the un-hearable. To embrace truth that is so fantastic, so incredibly absurd, it could never be believed except through faith. It is faith that enables us to believe stories such as: the Biblical account of creation; the stories of the miraculous intervention of God on behalf of His people, Israel; the story of the miraculous conception of Jesus Christ in the womb of Mary; the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus; the gift of salvation offered through Jesus; and so many others.

It is also faith that enables us to face the difficulties, hardships, and heartaches of life. As the Apostle John stated:

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

I John 5:4-5

As we travel through the arena of this physical life, there are times in which we feel that we cannot possibly keep going, but by faith we embrace the present with the belief that a greater day is coming. It will be an everlasting day, lived in the very presence of the One who loved us and died for us. Faith is indeed a crucial component of a life well-lived.

The second priority of life is family. These brief, fleeting days that Teresa and I are enjoying with Josh and his family will be cherished forever. Moments that we are able to spend with them, or with Bryan and his family, or with Charity, are moments that will linger in our minds and hearts.

As I think back over the early years of my marriage, especially the early years of my two son’s lives, I have so many regrets. I made so very many mistakes in rearing them. It would be so wonderful if we could somehow use some kind of magical eraser and completely remove those moments in which we made such horrible mistakes in child-rearing. But this is where faith and family come together so intricately and intimately. We pray that our children will not be scarred by the mistakes of the parents. We entrust them to the care and keeping of that same heavenly Father whom we have entrusted our lives.

As we all know, children don’t come with a how-to manual. Bryan and Joshua were not cut from the same cloth. If you would have had the opportunity to meet them in their youth, you probably would not have guessed they were brothers. So different in so many ways. As I watch Luke and Levi, I make that same observation. Distinctly different. But children of the same parents. Loved dearly by those parents.

This is the same as it is in the family of faith. God’s children are not all cut from the same cloth. Different races. Different ethnicities. Different cultural backgrounds. Different tastes. Different preferences. Different languages. And yet, we are all linked together by an invisible strand that is inseparable. That strand is, you guessed it, faith! Faith is what enables us to become children of God, and that same faith enables to embrace other children of God as brothers and sisters with whom we will spend eternity.

And when you think about it, everything else (at least from my present day perspective) pales in insignificance when compared with these.

Take advantage of every precious moment you have to share with family, both your blood family and your faith family. In the end, you will not regret this time well-spent.