when all is said and done, and i'm looking back upon this race i've run.

I was reading today and was compelled to share something from it and encourage everyone (including myself). I was reading from a book by Paul David Tripp, called Broken-Down House: living productively in a world gone bad. One of the chapters I read today was entitled, "Listen to Eternity" and it really slapped me in the face, in a good way.

"Temporal things were never designed to be a source of hope" (including people).
"Eternity: It is necessary for our faith to make sense, and it should change how we live".

You see this world is so good at enticing us to think we need more. Of everything.
-My phone is the old model, I need to update it so I can do all the things I need to do.
-My car just doesn't run as well as it should, especially next to that 2011-just-washed-shiny one...
-This house just doesn't have enough space for...all my new junk I've accumulated.
-My friends just don't understand me, I think I'll find new ones who have more fun.
as you can see it becomes more and more substantial and personal...heaven forbid we get to the point when we are married and look at our spouse and they just don't seem to measure up or have what everyone else seems to have.

To keep this semi-brief, I was reminded to always be sure of where my hope is resting in. I'm just going to go ahead and quote the book here to avoid rambling:
"When these saints look back, they don't say, "We lived in the best house!" Or, "We wore the best clothes!" Or, "We ate the finest food!" Or, "We had the most wonderful marriage!" Or, "Life was so pleasurable and comfortable!" No, as fitting as it is to be thankful for all these things, this is not what fills the hearts of the saints in eternity...They have their values right, and in Scripture we are given a glimpse of what they consider central so we don't have to wait until we join them there to get our values right." (He was referencing Revelation 7:10).

In summary, this last chunk sunk it in for me:
"When you come to the end of a day or a week and pronounce it "good," what made it good? What is it that you are asking your situations and relationships to give you? Are you happy? Fulfilled? Content? Secure? Restful? Appreciative? Satisfied? If so, why? And if not, why not? What holds your hope?"

As we give advice on relationships, and wait for that next stage in our lives of marriage, it is necessary to be reminded that while these things are all good in and of themselves, we can not depend on another person, relationship, marriage, or life stage to fully satisfy us and bring us to the place we need to be - Christ is the only one who can or should hold that power and place.
If we don't realize that, all this great advice will be for naught, and someday our marriages will still be empty. I pray we realize that both in heart and mind.