What are You Living For?

Monday morning I sat down with my two oldest boys and asked them this question. I told them I didn’t need an answer right away, but I wanted them to take a little time and think about it. I said, “I know you both know what the right answer is, but what is the real answer?”

“What are you living for?”

One of them chimed in with, “I’m just trying to get all my schoolwork done so I can do what I want to do.” I think he wanted me to believe he was living for school. So I said, “And which of those things are you living for? School? Or doing what you want to do?” He answered honestly.

So I reminded them of this week’s Bible verse, Matthew 22:37-39, which says:

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

I wasn’t trying to make anyone feel guilty or sad. I was just trying to make them think. Our conversation made me think, too.

What am I living for?

Truthfully, many days I am living for that brief moment in the afternoon when the house is quiet and I can sit and enjoy a cup of coffee without interruption. When my six-year-old is on my lap reading aloud to me, I’m thinking, “Hurry up. Stop looking at the pictures. We’re almost done for the day.” Or when my oldest is struggling through his math and it is 3:00 and we’ve been at this for hours, and all I want to do is be DONE, what am I living for? Most of the time I’m living for me.

I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with enjoying a moment of peace and quiet. And I’m certainly not saying there is anything wrong with coffee. But in my own life, I can see how sometimes the desire for “me time” casts a shadow over everything else, causing me to rush through things and miss the opportunities God has put in front of me to love the people around me.

So I’ve been repeating this question throughout the week, to myself and my children. What are we living for right now? God, what would You have us do with this day?

~written by Kendra