Time could be a funny thing. My parents saw time slipping away as their grandkids were getting older. And so they wanted one last vacation where all of the kids and grandkids could get together. They chose a Caribbean cruise. Everybody was able to make it as while back when I was in better shape, I was running a couple marathons a year. My goal was to try to qualify for Boston every year. And so I got up the first day of the cruise early before people would be plugging up the boat. There was a running track on the top of the cruise ship and it was small. I thought there’s no way I could count the laps, but I’ve got my GPS watch, right? So I just figured that’ll tell me how far I go. So I take off around the track and uh, I know I was in decent shape, but I did the first mile in two minutes and 35 seconds.

Uh, man, running that heat and humidity has really made me fit. I just set a world record in the mile. Sometimes these watches act up. I wasn’t sure what was going on. So I kept running and I’m just clicking off the miles at about that pace. And so I ran about an hour and I kept going ’cause I wanted to see how long it would take me to do a marathon. And I set the world record for the marathon. I ran a marathon in one hour, three minutes and 48 seconds. I’ve got the GPS data to prove it. Uh, this is crazy. I’m not only gonna qualify for the Boston Marathon, I’m going to win the Boston Marathon by about an hour. I was feeling pretty good. We had breakfast with our kids. My son’s pretty smart. He went to Notre Dame, go Irish. Uh, tomorrow was there.

And I told him about it. I said, I’m gonna rest up and in two days I’m gonna go for it. I wanna break one hour in the marathon. My son looked at me with a little bit of deserved disdain. He said, dad, if you wanna break an hour in the marathon, you gotta talk to the captain. Said, what are you talking about? He goes, dad, we’re in a ocean on a ship that moves. The GPS is picking up the boat. It’s not picking up you <laugh>. Now these smart people, you were ahead of me, right? It makes so much sense Now, I didn’t get it at the time, but wouldn’t it be cool if we could kinda live life at that pace and don’t we wanna live life at that pace where we go three or four times faster than we could normally go, just propelled, get more done, be faster, get it all done.

That’s kind of the pace we live today. And yet, God, early on in his teaching to his people has a commandment that tells us literally to stop. Kurt mentioned that last week. The word Sabbath in Hebrew literally means to stop one day a week, stop running, stop working, stop striving, relate, worship, rest, and relax. I think one of the reasons we tend not to value the Sabbath as much as God does is that we don’t use it to reflect and to worship. We think it’s the time just to not work. And so we might just fill it up with streaming movies or just taking time off. But the Puritans called the Sabbath, the Market Day of the Soul. Just as you’re building up your bank account, you’re building up your crops Monday through Saturday. Sunday is a day where you build up your soul. You’re building up spiritual capital.

And I think if we started to understand what that does to us, we would value it more. I think the second reason we tend not to value the Sabbath so much in this culture is we just think there’s not enough time. But let’s put it in historical perspective. We live about twice as long as the forefathers and foremothers of our country lived. In fact, in 1940, a baby born in 1940 had a life expectancy of 40 years old. How many of you are 40 or older? Raise your hand if you are okay, you’re all dead, right? So we can just sort of go and meet in the chapel and close this place down. Even if you’re born in the United States, the life expectancy for a child born in 1900 was just 47 years. And here’s what I found. Sometimes when you have more of something, you value it less.

The more of something you have, you often value it less. Here’s an analogy my wife will hate, but those of you like me who eat fast food will get it. What is the most delicious french fry? It’s so easy you, it’s the last ones in the bag, right? You’re just jamming ’em in your mouth in the box and you think you’re done. And then you reach into the bag and a couple fell out. You are like, oh, this is even better. It’s the best french fries. ’cause you know they’re the last ones. Years can be that way, but years are far more precious than french fries. Challenges. When we have more we we value it less. I started to understand this when my youngest daughter was 12 years old, I was away on a trip. I had to go pick up something at the mall and I saw this young family, a mom and a dad.

The mom looks like she’s power shopping. The dad is trying to corral the kids and he’s holding all the bags. And then I watch his little girl, maybe two and a half, three years old, run up in front of her dad and stop right in front of him. I said, dad, you gotta carry me. My legs are too tired. And I could tell he didn’t really want to, but he looked like a good dad. So he put all of the bags in one hand, he scoops her up and he goes on. And as I just watched this, it just hit me, Gary, when is the last time you carried one of your kids through the mall? Because their little legs were too tired. That’s the first time I realized it’s over forever. It was such a common occurrence when they were young. It was happening all the time.

And now it never happened. And I wish somebody would’ve said, Gary, take a mental snapshot of this moment. Remember it, embrace it. It’s gonna be the last time I was so unsettled. I went home to my 12-year-old daughter and said, Kelsey, can I carry you through the mall one last time? And if you’ve ever had a 12-year-old girl, you know exactly how that conversation went. It didn’t happen. I had a friend in Houston said, golly man, 10 kids invested in their lives. Love the Lord. So godly in everything he did. And then I got the awful news. He’s about my age. He was diagnosed with glioblastoma. It’s a brain tumor A couple months ago, life expectancy for someone. That situation is nine to 12 months. He’s decided to go for quality of life instead of quantity. I’ve touched base with him just what lessons can you teach me?

He taught on worship this last Wednesday and he said to me, Gary, it’s kind of funny how li a likely death sentence changes your perspective so drastically. And so I’ll even ask him just practical questions. ’cause Lisa and I had just gone to Costco. I go, Neil, if you only got six months left, do you go to Costco for two hours? You say, no, that’s not worth it. I mean, how does it change? And he says, it changes everything because you think you have years and years and years with your kids or even on your own. And then you realize we don’t. God who is the author of life and the knower of every one of our deaths wants us to step back and live with a realistic view of life that you can’t live if you’re going full speed. Psalm 90 12 says this, teach us to number our days.

Why that we may gain a heart of wisdom if we’re not numbering our days, if we act like they’re infinite and have no end. We do not live with wisdom. We live with foolish choices. And that’s why the Sabbath has to be about reflection. It’s not just resting up, it’s not recreating. There has to be a time of reflection. There’s a reason God wants us to stop. It’s not just physical tiredness. Lorenzo Oli was a 16th century priest and he said this in his book, spiritual Combat. When the Devil holds Anyone in the of Sin, his great concern is to turn away that person’s mind from every thought that might lead him to discover his most unhappy condition. If you are full on in an addiction, if you are messing around with a possible affair, if you’re just trying to earn more money, if you’re just trying to make your own name whatnot, the last thing Satan wants is for you to slow down and consider what you’re doing.

It’s like pedal to the metal. Just keep going. Don’t think because if you think God’s voice might break through, if you reflect, you might realize you’re fighting a battle that really doesn’t matter. That’s why Satan hates a true Sabbath. He hates all of God’s commands. But I think he particularly hates this one because he wants us. He doesn’t want us to reflect on the life that God calls us to. Dr. Matthew SLE says this, today, things travel at the speed of light. God designed us to spend one day a week at the speed of stop.

Now, I wanna be honest with you how I handle scripture. I can’t say that the Sabbath is a New Testament command like it was in the Old Testament, but it is so exalted. If we understand its importance and how to live it, we would want to experience it. The Bible uses the word holy 600 times. These utensils are holy, these people are holy, this land is holy, these people, all of that. But where’s the first time the Bible describes something as holy? The very first time the Bible describes something as holy as Genesis chapter two verse three, and here’s what it refers to. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it, he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. Now, think of who God is. He didn’t rest because he was tired. He rested because he’s holy.

And if we would be holy, we wanna live the same pattern of life. After you’ve created something and you’re thinking what’s gonna happen, what’s gonna happen? There has to be this point of reflection and slowing down. And I don’t believe we can live a holy life, an obedient life. And I don’t think you can live a happy life if there’s no time of pausing and reflection because this world is so loud and our hearts are sinful and we get so carried away that we need to slow down and stop and let God speak into our lives. I found one of the best ways to do this is to think, read through Genesis five very often, which if you read it, you’ll think I’m absolutely crazy. But I think it has one of the most powerful sermons in the Old Testament. I mean, Genesis starts at just huge.

You’ve got creation. You, you’ve got uh, the fall, you’ve got a homicide in the first family. You’ve got the arc and the flood and all of that. I mean, I could just see an editor saying, this is great. Action, action, action. And then you come to Genesis five and it’s just a list of names. I’ve worked with a lot of editors in my life. I could say, Gary, we gotta cut this. It’s got a great hook at the start, but you’re gonna lose everybody with this. And yet I would hate to cut it ’cause I think it’s got one of the most powerful messages in the Old Testament. Let’s read through some of it. Genesis five, beginning with verse five. Altogether Adam lived 930 years and then he died when Seth had lived 105 years. He became the father of Enoch. And after he became the father of Enoch, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters altogether.

Seth lived 912 years. And then he died when Enoch had lived 90 years he became the father of Keenan. And after he became the father of Keenan, Enoch lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters altogether. Enoch lived 905 years. And then he died when Keenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of someone whose name begins with M. You try to pronounce that. And after he became the father of someone whose name begins with m Keenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters all together, Keenan lived 910 years and then he died. And it goes on and on. And there are others. I think this has made the point. We don’t know anything about these men. We don’t know if they were scholars or farmers or athletes. We don’t know if they were pious and good men or evil men.

We don’t know if they were happily married or frustrated in their marriage. We only know this. They were born, they had sons and daughters and then they died and got out of the way. And I think that’s such an honest picture of human existence that we’re not remembered except the impact we make through people. Whether through giving birth or relationships with other people that nothing else is really remembered or will be remembered by us. Now I know we like to push back to say Gary, it just doesn’t sound scriptural to say I, I’m insignificant. But me embracing my insignificance has helped me to live, I believe, a happier and more obedient life. I call it my Chester Arthur philosophy of life. And if you have read Chester Arthur Arthur, you know who I’m talking about. He was the 21st president of the United States. We all talk about, oh, everybody will remember Biden. Everybody will remember Trump really couple hundred years from now. Really? I mean Chester Arthur, he president of the United States. And yet almost nobody even remembers that he lived. And if they do, because they had to memorize some lists for politics or something, they don’t know anything about what party

He stood for, who he was or what he tried

To get done. And we think, well Gary, that’s not fair. I mean everybody will remember George Washington and Abraham Lincoln,

You know, will they,

Lisa and I went to college up in Washington State and when Elisa’s closest friends attendance, she lived in Canada. She grew up in Canada and she hated having to take American history because she didn’t know anything. She

Had never heard of George Washington

And that’s in Canada. Imagine people

In Korea and Chi, why would they study George Washington?

We think these people

Are so

Famous and we realize

Even

If you become at one point the most

Powerful

Person in the world, that doesn’t mean you’ll

Be

Remembered

Trying

To make a mark in this world by impressing this world is like trying to become known for blowing the biggest soap

Bubble. It’s gonna last about that long. And I said, well, Gary, I don’t know

People remember Elon Musk, right?

He’s the richest

Man in the world. Yeah, maybe.

But let’s go back 40 years. Who was the

Richest man in

19 85, 40 years ago?

Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, which people might have heard of Walmart. They don’t remember him. So let’s

Go forward three

Years ’cause something different was happening in the economy. Who

Was

The richest man in 1988? It’s gotta be important, right? He’s gonna be remembered. It was

Yoki

Tumi. If you’re my age, you remember there was a point whenever you thought Japan would own everything. Their economy was taking over, they were buying up the land until everything crashed. And now nobody even remembers who that

Was or what he did or how

He made that money.

That tells me, even if I were able to achieve the very top level of political power or financial power

Or entertainment power, I’m not gonna be remembered. My life won’t be any more significant than, than any of those people mentioned in the Bible except

For the people

That I’ve impacted. And that’s what helps me focus on the right priorities today. I remember a Sabbath that changed my life when my kids were young. I was part, it was an exciting new ministry. It was a time where God was moving and this ministry was growing. It was a nonprofit ministry.

But the, the

Head of the ministry wanted me to travel with him

Every

Weekend. It was like eight or nine weekends in a row. I was gone and my kids were young. And one of the speaking engagements I was away on, I met a guy that just changed my view of life. His name was Ernie. He worked for IBM, which at the time was the country’s most successful

Company. They were the richest. And they had a famous line. They had never up to that point laid a single person off. But they demanded a lot of you. If you worked for IBM, you got there early, you stayed late if they needed you there on the weekend, you didn’t once say no. You knew they were gonna take care of you, but you had to prioritize them over everything. And yet Ernie was, I don’t know, he was young in his early sixties, he decided to retire early. And I asked him why. And he told me about his coworker. He worked beside him for years. Relatively young guy in his late forties. And one morning he didn’t show up. That’s weird ’cause he didn’t call in sick. And then at eight 30 that morning, his wife had called in and said he was dead. He had a heart attack at breakfast.

He just fell over. And he said, Gary, IBM chose his replacement that afternoon. Who was there the next morning? And he had already been trained, he fit in. He goes, IBM didn’t lose a step. Nobody went to his funeral from the work and said, well we know him. We didn’t really know his family. We didn’t have time to socialize afterwards. And what he said almost haunted me, he said, Gary, after he was buried as far as the company was concerned, it was like he never existed. He gave his entire life to the company, coming in early and working late. But the company didn’t miss a single step once he died. It’s terrible to say this, but in a way the company was less inconvenienced by his death than if he had taken a two week vacation. I said, I realize I’m not gonna give everything I have to this company.

It’s like I’m never existed Once I’m gone. I have never forget returning from that trip. I walk in the door, three little kids wrapped their arms around me. My grandpa said, now the whole family’s home. We went for a walk. He grabbed my wife’s hand and my hand and he kissed him. It’s so fun that everybody’s together. And I had a Sabbath reflection after that. And I said, Gary, who do you wanna say no to these kids that they’ll never say in their lifetime? It’s like, you never existed. This woman now I’ve been with for 40 years or a ministry or a business that if I die tomorrow, they’re just, they’re not gonna miss a step. I, and I say that even here, although Lisa and I love being here. If I die next week, Kurt’s gonna hire someone. And probably more than half of you’ll say it’s kind of an upgrade, isn’t it?

You know, I mean I just, to be honest and, and that’s okay because I realize this isn’t where I’m gonna get my meaning and my value, except as God calls me to invest myself here. Embracing my insignificance in the side of this world, I believe helps me to have real significance. God says to seek first his kingdom, which means I, I, I’ll get just as many rewards helping one individual anonymously as talking to any big crowd or any public ministry. And it means that I wanna focus on my family over any earthly accomplishment. This last week, two things happened when my wife was really glad about, I got official letter from my publisher that my next book had been accepted for publication. Lisa likes it. ’cause then we get a check for the advance. But then two days later, I’m on a run and it’s my daughter who FaceTimes me, my oldest daughter.

And she got engaged and maybe this shouldn’t move me as much as it did. I was her first call. My girl had a guy said, I want to marry you. And I was the first one she wanted to tell Dad, I’m engaged. I gotta tell. I will never forget that call. I’m not even remember some email I got from a publisher about another book that was, has been accepted a couple months ago. I was traveling to watch my grandkids. Uh, and I had to fly out here on Saturday ’cause I was preaching on the Sunday. And I tend to wake up earlier as my granddaughter does. And so we’d spend some time in the morning. She loves art. And it came to something I said, Anna, do you know how to make a star? ’cause she was trying. She goes, no. So I just spent, we just spent about an hour learning how to draw a star. And I finally used the dot approach ’cause it was her. I said, let’s set up the dots, light like this. Then you just connect line. She goes, oh. And then she was doing it and then she’s drawing, drawing stars on everything. And then I had to leave that afternoon. And so she saw my suitcase and she got this cloud over her face and she ran and buried her head in the couch. And she starts weeping like, Anna, honey, what is it? I said, I just don’t want you to go. Why can’t you stay?

It’s a, they don’t know anything about books that I’ve written or places I’ve talked or TV or tell or radio programs. I’m about to to Anna. I’m just the PA who taught her how to draw a star. And I’ll tell you that one little girl crying into the couch ’cause she didn’t want me to go. So much more satisfying men than any standing ovation that I’ve gotten in front of a big crowd. Arthur Brooks, a Harvard professor says that my experience is what will lead to the most happiness for everybody. It’s universal. It a great book I recommend everybody get from strength to strength. He cites a university study 70 years long at Harvard that followed graduates who had extrinsic goals or intrinsic goals. Here’s what he said. Intrinsic goals centered around fulfillment from deep enduring relationships. Extrinsic goals centered on earning a lot of money, owning a lot of stuff, gaining power or achieving reputation and fame. After

A year. Those who

Followed extrinsic goals were further along to achieving their goals.

Those who followed

Intrinsic goals were further along than the other group and achieving their intrinsic goals. But

Here was the difference. Those

Pursuing intrinsic goals

Were much,

Much happier.

They

Were getting what they were pursuing. Only one group found those goals. Satisfying Brooks concludes, if your life goals revolve around lots of money, prestige and otherworldly things, you’re setting yourself up to have exploding wants and low life satisfaction exploding wants. If we go to the next slide, please, and low life satisfaction that

Describes life

In the western world that’s lived

At the rat race. Faster, harder. Get on the boat. Have something carry for, do more than other people can do to show you’re important, to show that you’re gifted, to show that you’re successful and you’ll have

Exploding wants. You’ll never be satisfied. And very low life satisfaction. God knows this. He knows

The world and our own hearts lead us astray. So

He says, one day a week,

Stop. Reflect. It’s so easy to forget

And to be lured away by the trinkets of this world. Just stop and reflect. Are you living your life with the right priorities? Which means people, my wife and I had a typical marital disagreement this last week. She said, man, I gotta clean the door. Here’s our front door, a picture of our front door. And I begged her, please don’t. ’cause if you look

Right here,

It’s a little hand print, which means it’s one of our grandkids. Over Christmas, they were looking out the window and put their hand print there. I said,

I’d rather have a dirty window with a hand

Print. That reminds me my grandkids were in there than that. We have a clean one. Now. I lost that. It’s a little embarrassing. I’m tend to be more sentimental than Lisa. But I’ve just looked at my life. I wanna savor

These years

With the grandkids. ’cause I just think back to what happened with my, with my own kids, how quickly time passes. My son is pretty accomplished in this world. So it’s hard for me to remember the time when my wife came and said, Gary, you gotta teach him how to pee in the toilet. He just said that we, we gotta do it. It was so difficult. So I came up, I drew a piece of a flame on a piece of toilet paper. I threw it in the toilet bowl. I said,

Graham, the toilet’s on fire. We need a fireman to come put it out.

Graham knew he had the equipment, he knew what to do.

He put that fire out, job done. That was it. That worked.

A few years went by, his aunt had sent him a football uniform. It was too big. The helmet like twirled around on his head. But he called me the day he got it, dad, can you come home from work early? It’s gonna get dark early, but I really want to play football with you. I’m so glad I did. I I don’t remember a single afternoon of that job. Seriously. ’cause it was 30 years ago, probably 25 years ago at least. I don’t remember A single afternoon. I remember that afternoon playing football with my son. Then I made a mistake. There was a church that was imploding. It appealed to me, Gary, you’re the one that you gotta help us. You can teach. We need a lot of evening meetings trying to get it set up and everything. And it was a lot of evenings. And my son was a junior in high school and I thought, well, he’s gone a lot.

Anyway, let me just say to parents, the busier your kids are, the more you have to be at home. ’cause you gotta catch those 15 or 20 minute chances or, or a couple days could go by. And I missed those years. And they gave me a plaque at the end of it. Gary, thank you for your heroic service to this in this chapel. And I thought I’d bring it to show you, I don’t know where it is. I lost it or I threw it away. I wish I would have those evenings back, like those last french fries in the bag. But I thought they would never end. And they did. And then I was hit when I dropped my son off for college, he went to Notre Dame and it’s a big three days. If you’ve sent your kids off at college, you know this, you’re three days, you’re going to the hardware store, you’re going to place like a Walmart to get all of the supplies and all of that.

And you’re together all day. And then boom, they have to leave. I’ll never forget parking to watch to drop Graham off. And I’m sure I prayed for him. I’m sure we talked. But he got out the door. I could not pull away until I couldn’t see him anymore. Wanted one more second? One more moment, one more time with him. And I thought of those evenings I’d thrown away ’cause of that. Well, they’re never gonna end. And and then they did. I’m holding on to every last second. And six years went by. He was getting married. I remember the night before his wedding. My wife came in that night and she’s just sobbing. I said, what? And she goes, that’s the last back rub I get to give Graham before he goes to sleep. She did that all the time through college and sometimes she, or high school.

And she admitted it was tiresome. And I go, why do you think it’s the last one? She goes, Gary, I don’t see any world where I’m giving my son a back rub with his wife laying down next to him. Yeah, you’re, you’re probably right. And then my awakening came the next day and I thought of watching him walk into Notre Dame. And now I’m walking, watching him walk into a church as he’s about to start his own family where he has to leave us to start his own. And then later that day, I saw an expression on his face. I’d never seen just this sheer joy as he began life with his new bride. And I think if you were to ask Lisa and I, if God were to give Lisa and I the option you guys, you can have three months in Europe, five star hotels, Michelin restaurants, all expenses paid.

Or you can go back to when your kids were seven, five, and two when you lived in that tiny crowded townhouse and drove that car where if you turn too sharply to the right, it would die. It was embarrassing. Lisa and I wouldn’t even have to talk. We would go back, let’s go back when the kids are young. ’cause you don’t think the years are ever gonna end. And then they do. So the Bible says, number your day, stop reflect. Because that’s what gives you wisdom. A woman that had to number of days was Marsha, her daughter. Erin was three years old when Marsha was first diagnosed with cancer. Marsha beat it. And then Erin was 13 when a different kind of cancer came back. It’s a picture when Marsha had just found out about that she beat it again. But the third and final time the cancer appeared, Erin was 16.

Marsha developed a form of lung cancer that sometimes follows the survivors of breast cancer. And it goes up through your lungs and esophagus and was attacking her brain. And she was honest with her family, said, look, I beat this twice. I don’t think I’m gonna beat it the third time. And so she changed everything. She put away the common dishes. They brought out the China and the crystal there. It’s kind of wild eating Cheerios out of a China bowl and drinking orange juice out of a crystal goblet. But that’s the way her mom wanted to do it. And Erin was just two years in the school year. She had flown away to start a school year. But she woke up. She just said, I, I need to go home and see mom. So she called her dad, dad need to come home this weekend. And her dad said, Aaron, no, we talked about this.

You can’t put your life on hold. It’s the start of the school year. You’re making relationships, you’re starting your studies. And they’re fighting on the phone until Marsha overhears. It says to her husband, I, I’d love to see Aaron that settled it. Dad got back on the phone, honey, there’ll be a ticket for you at the airport. Aaron was with her all weekend and she was horrified because the cancer had gone up through the esophagus. And so she would get into these coughing fits and, and there’s one on Sunday afternoon where she’s at. It’s just not going to end. Is her mom even gonna come out of it? And her dad had gone away to do some shopping ’cause he knew Aaron would be there when he came home. He came home to a very defiant daughter. He said, dad, I’m not going. And they had that same argument, Aaron, we talked about it.

You can’t just put your life on old. This isn’t right. She goes, dad, I’m not going. You can’t make me. And finally Marsha broke, brought the peace when she said to her husband, I really don’t want Aaron to go. And Aaron got to stay. And Marcia died the next morning. Aaron remembers she knew and God knew. And somehow God got through to me that I just had to be there. Erin was so young, still a teenager trying to learn how to live without her mom. And then on her 18th birthday, as they had the cake and were celebrating her dad brought out this beautifully wrapped blue box. At first, Erin was shocked. She thought, there’s no way my dad could wrap a package that nicely. And then she noticed her mom’s familiar handwriting to Erin on her 18th birthday. And her dad explained that Marcia knew she would miss a number of life events and she wanted to be there.

And so she had done some shopping and some preparing, and Erin opened it up and it was her mom’s wedding ring. She’d taken out the diamond, replaced it with an amethyst. Erin was so touched that her mom was there on her 18th birthday. A couple years went by and she graduated from college. They had all the commencement exercises and everything. And after that was done, and again, the cake was eaten and all that, her dad had another one of those blue boxes again. She saw her mom’s handwriting to Erin on the day she graduates from college. And Erin opened up, opened it up, and it was her mom’s watch, which Erin treasured. ’cause she said, my mom was the queen of accessorizing. She always wondered what had happened to that watch. And she was so touched to have it. Some more years went by and she fell in love, met the man of her dreams.

And here’s where she really started to feel a little sorry for herself. And who could blame her? A young woman wants her mom to be there. ’cause she kept thinking, what would mom say about this dress? What would mom say about the cake or these flowers? But you lose your mom young. You just have to do what you have to do. And on the day she was getting married, she admit, she was thinking something about her mom and her dad came in to walk her down the aisle. And when he walked into the room, he had the last of those boxes. And Erin saw the writing from her mom to Erin on her wedding day. And Erin opened up, and here’s what she found. These beautiful diamond stud earrings. Earrings said, it felt like my mom was hugging me as I walked down the aisle. She was blown away that her mom had found a way to be there.

We don’t know anything else about Marsha. We don’t know if she was a great tennis player, what her golf handicap might be or her business or how much money we had. But she numbered her days and made the influence the most it could be by investing in those relationships. Aaron says that she’s gotten older. It’s sort of been hard for Marsha’s friends because they say this, they say, wow, because we look alike. But it’s more than that. They say it’s our mutual tone of voice, our love for the Lord, our mannerisms. God has brought me full circle. My mom is definitely a part of who I am today, without question, she has helped shape me in the person I’ve become. She lived Genesis five. I’m gonna have daughters, sons, and I’m gonna get out of the way. It doesn’t have to be natural born, it’s the people you’re investing in. But if you want to know, how do you become significant in God’s eyes, what is your real legacy? It’s the people you came here with. It’s the people you meet with. It’s the people you are investing in. This world says you find meaning and significance and worth in everything else. And that’s why God tells us He knows how this world works. One day, stop. Don’t just reflect, don’t just recreate. Don’t, don’t just recreate, but reflect, think and ponder. Am I living a life that shows the wisdom of one who numbers their days? Let’s pray.

Father, thank you through your word, giving us an advanced picture of what we’ll value most at the end of our lives. Lord, I just pray. ’cause I, I know as I was praying for this, you said there were some people, they need to hear this because they need to make some changes in their lives to refocus where they put their efforts. Lord, I pray that your spirit would awaken that in them and give them the courage to do just that. Lord, teach us to number our days that we might live a wise life. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.