[#Life] MidlifeSample

Relationships

When we get to midlife, we start to understand what is important in life. We have spent so much time becoming, and now we are learning how to be. One of the last pieces of Scripture we get from Paul before he dies is the one where he talks a lot about relationships. And at the end of the day, that is what really matters: our relationship with God, with our spouse, with our kids, with our parents, with our family, and with our friends. It is about all these different connections that we have. That is what it is really about.

We might get to a point in our lives where we might not have the body we wanted to have, or we might not have all the success we thought we would have, or we might not go on our dream vacation every year. But that is not what it is about. Do not invest in the fleeting things in life. Invest in relationships. Invest in people. Love on them; care about people. Be a part of other people’s lives. Let God do something great through you in the lives of all those surrounding you.

Paul David Tripp, in one of his books, says,

"At this point of midlife, there have been scores of report cards, progress reports. There have been countless teacher’s conferences and athletic events, camps, proms. There have been more day trips and weekends away and vacations than I’m able to recount. There have been endless moments of discipline, correction, and instruction. We have purchased mountains of clothes, truckloads of food, and my wife and I have talked, prayed, discussed, and wept along the way. We have escaped to an endless number of restaurants just to be together. We have left behind a parking lot of used up vehicles, a warehouse of outgrown clothes, and mounds of broken glass, dishes, and decorations. They are just artifacts of a family civilization gone by, yet it has all passed with blinding speed and largely went unnoticed."

Life goes by so fast, but relationships truly last. Try investing in those. Our relationship with God should be our number one, then comes our family, friends, and people surrounding us, who can make us better people, and who we can make better people.

Maybe you are a parent who is getting older, and your kids are adults now, and they are in midlife—you can help them go through this stage in life through your own experience. Maybe you are still young, and your parents are going through midlife—you can help them by understanding them, loving them, honoring them, and lifting them up.

For more information regarding this devotional please follow this link: https://houstonsfirst.org/message/midlife