I Really Lived

by Marjorie Pay Hinckley

I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car wearing beautifully tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking the kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing sister Schenk's lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with childrens' sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know that I was really here and that I REALLY LIVED.

This quote by Sister Hinckley was given out yesterday in our Young Women's lesson and it really touched me and made me want to put things in better perspective. Sometimes the things that bring us the longest lasting joy get over looked so easily because we are worried about having a perfectly clean house, or a great hairday. But really it is our relationships that we foster here on Earth and how we love and serve those we know that will bring us far more lasting joy. And anyways, whose house stays clean these days and whose hair stays perfect all day long? Not mine.