What Matters the Most?

Today I was at a Target, shopping with my wonderful grandmother, and, as usual, I was drawn to the stationary/office supplies section. I love to look at the matching stationary and note-cards, reorganize the Washi Tape that has been all mixed up (yep, there's my inner OCD-ness coming out), and look over all the notebooks. My eye was caught by a light-purple leather covered notebook with words embossed in the front. Picking it up I read, "Whatever Makes You Smile Are The Only Things That Matter."
  Hm, I thought. I wonder who came up with that? I reached into my trusty backpack and pulled out my own notepad, that scribbled a note to stick inside the journal.

To whoever buys this notebook:

Sometimes, the things that don't

make you smile are the things that 

matter the most. Love can hurt.

Sacrifice hurts. Bravery can 

hurt. But where would we be 

without them? Just remember 

that the hardest things in 

life might not make you smile,

but they are the things that

matter the most.

-SG

The person who wrote that must not have been thinking of war, or starving children, or someone giving of themselves, serving others unnoticed. These are the things that truly matter. 

  I think oftentimes, we forget that it's the hardest things that matter the most. Doing the right thing, standing up for the truth. I'm not saying that things that are happy or glad aren't important--they most certainly are--but let's just not forget those things that matter the most. I'm sure that God sending down His only Son to die among sinners was the most painful thing He had ever done. But in the grand scheme of all creation, that is the thing that matters the most.