we cannot buy our way into heaven

woman reading-Matisse

"According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue: and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these be found in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins." 2 Peter 1:3-9

Everything we have is a gift from God, our lives, basic necessities, our desire to do and be good, our families, everything. We may think that our hard work is solely responsible for our success. While this is one of the ingredients, we have no blessings from other sources. With our blessings, we are called to be like Jesus, diligent, faithful, virtuous, smart, temperate (means not overeating or drinking alcohol), patient, godly, kind, and charitable.

There is a catch in all this. It is true that many people who don't believe in God are good people; we might even say they choose the right. That's wonderful. However, without God there is no moral excellence and real virtue. We must know Him to emulate Him. It is said that we must first desire to know. Desiring is good, but it is not enough. Since "the fear of the Lord is knowledge," we must stretch and seek for knowledge by study and also by prayer to find the hidden treasure. When we find the treasure, the commandments and precepts that allow us to gain the above mentioned character traits, we must obey and emulate. My husband often teaches that our journey here on earth is to discover God's character and learn to be like Him. That the real judgment of our character in heaven will come from ourselves. Because we won't be comfortable in His presence with a seriously flawed character, we will choose for ourselves to dwell in His presence of sink below.

An interesting idea is time. Most women take time to groom and dress themselves to be presentable and lovely on the outside. Generally, women don't go out with greasy hair or holes in their clothes. This should be the care we give to our inner selves as well. We should take the time to develop our insides to make them lovely and presentable. The list of faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, kindness, and charity will likely take a lifetime to develop. It's in the striving that we become like our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. As long as we focus on Him and His commandments, we will do just fine. And when we fall short, we have the blessing of repentance on our side; He will make up the difference. Certainly, we cannot buy our way into heaven, however, we are commanded to make our very best effort to develop a godly character.

The secret to a successful and fruitful life, translated happy, is the list above. Loving and serving God's children especially our families, accepting children into our homes, not justifying poor or irrational behavior, and then repenting for shortcomings, we can be known in the gates as virtuous women.