What, for you, would be of utmost significance? There’s a saying that says: “A hundred years from now…it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove… but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a Child.” Simple, yes? Not really. I really try and respond to children as if they were merely small people and not talk down to them. I learned that from watching my father. He really did love children and never talked down to them, though he may have used simpler words. But he never was dismissive to a child.
Since I never was blessed to have any children, I thought that the ability to be important in a child’s life quite beyond me. However, you can be important to a child regardless of whether this blessing was a personal one or not. Again I point to the model my father provided and then I looked at others who can/do have an impact: a Sunday School teacher, a school teacher, a relative like my uncle – who was forever teaching young children how to play baseball or ride a bike. Growing up I really had a wealth of adult models.The point is that if being a significant adult in the life of a child is important, then you will find ways of providing this support.
I suspect that the point is that people are important and how we treat them suggests what we consider as important. Your beliefs should be of utmost significance. Your behavior toward others is another area that should be of utmost significance. Your relationship with the Lord should be of utmost significance. Your witness in the world is of utmost significance. How you go about being you is of utmost significance. The subject in all those sentences was – you. You are of utmost significance. And whether you accept this or not and act on this or not does not diminish the credibility.
A friend uses as her email closing, “May I view all things in the mirror of eternity… May I speak each word as if my last word, and walk each step as my final one. If my life should end today, let this be my best day.” (This comes from a collection from Puritan Prayers and Devotions.) And it is a tremendous reminder of what we should consider, ‘Of Utmost Significance’. What other lasting and of utmost significance attitudes and behaviors are important to you?
