Perspective
What are the traits of a successful life? How one answers that question often reveals much about the depth of their faith.
Some adult men believe their life will only end successfully if they meet all of their financial goals while retiring at a decent age. Many adult women do not feel successful unless they have a college degree and profitable career while settling down in their dream home.
On the flip side, many young women are led to believe true achievement is maintaining a healthy diet and being admired for their physical beauty. Some boys feel unsuccessful if they have not achieved celebrity status in their schools by their prowess in the world of athletics.
Yet, the one who is led by God’s divine book does not see the standard of true success as being financial, educational, physical or social. The Christian’s perspective of success is rooted in achieving spiritual goals.
In eternity, God will not care how expensive your home was but it will matter whether or not you stayed faithful to your spouse in your home (Matthew 19:4-6).
Fathers, at the judgment, God will not care if you had a window office or washed the windows at the office. Yet, it will matter whether or not you brought up your children “in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).
Mothers, God will not be giving out any awards to women based on their professional careers. Yet, her life will have been a success if her children “continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control” (1 Timothy 2:15).
God will not care if boys play varsity or draw water for them. Because “bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Timothy 4:8).
Further, outward beauty will not get young women into the gates of heaven because “the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit...is very precious in the sight of God” (1 Peter 3:4).
The person who reads the Bible will become much more conscious of God’s view of success than the world’s perspective. John contrasts these two perspectives saying, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him...And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15,17). Does your family see life from God’s perspective?
“The person
who reads the
Bible will
become much
more conscious
of God’s view of
success than
the world’s
perspective.”
May 2009