Without doubt, times have changed. We are much more affluent – the average household income in El Dorado Hills is over $90,000; we are far more educated, more literate, more traveled and more informed. Airplanes, cell phones and e-mail has made the world smaller. Computers have quickened the pace of just about everything we do and there seems to be no end to technological achievement and opportunity.

Pretty impressive, isn’t it? Yet, most people have seen how empty our lives become when we make career, prosperity and intellectual/professional achievement our main ambition. "Vanity, all is vanity," said the Preacher in Ecclesiastes, and we know it’s true.

The things that really matter never change. Strong families, loving marriages, good friends, and a sound faith – these are the things that matter most. These are the things that give our lives purpose and value, regardless of what the NASDAQ does.

The news for some is that it has always been so. My mother started writing a journal in 1989 and made entries in it up to the time of her death in 1997. It deals mostly with her life from about 3 years old through high school, a period starting back 75 years. As I read the pages, I was struck with how little the important things have changed. Family, the church, friends: we all still value those most, just as mom did.

When we reflect on the things that have really changed, we realize what we have lost as a culture. Today, I suspect most kids – and their parents – are too busy playing soccer, going to band practice, or playing Nintendo to take time to sit in a tree in the summer and enjoy the green leaves and blossoms, as my mom did back in the 30s.

There is no question that the pace of our lives has quickened, and we are not better for it. Instead of Limbaugh and Brokaw, we need more of that "tree time," far away from TV or radio; instead of sitting in front of computer screens and the Big Screen, we need more family time – with our own families and the family of God – eating homemade ice cream and making memories; instead of putting in extra hours to try to "get ahead," we need more of those bike rides with good friends, "even into the hills" where we just "talk and talk." We need to slow down and, as the trite expression goes, "smell the roses."

It’s not my intention to glorify the "good old days." The writer of Ecclesiastes says that those who do so "are not wise." And why should we glorify those days? What did they have that we cannot have? Nothing! We have the same opportunity to direct the pace and quality of our lives, just like mom’s folks did. These are the "good old days" twenty years from now. Slow down. Learn to say "no" to all those urgent things that distract you from the truly important.  Make a radical change if you have to. Whatever you do, don’t miss the most precious moments of life.