Anyone has been reading these posts recently knows about the amazing experience I had earlier this week, the insights I received from God that have changed my life incredibly for the better.

But I need to clarify something.

The wisdom I received, and the mission it has given me, aren't the first time I have felt the presence of God in my life. Indeed, what the Lord gave me this week wasn't even the greatest gift I have received from him.

My greatest gift -- the most wonderful I have ever received -- came in September 1992 when I met my wife Nicole. And when I have said this week that everything is different now, that isn't true. My love for my wife and our wonderful children will never change. Nicole, Pauline and Virgile are my three favorite people in the world, and they are also the three people I admire the most.

[caption id="attachment_451" align="alignleft" width="295" caption="My wonderful wife"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/n713362066_474005_8222.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-451" title="The 2005 hike to Kearsarge Pass" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/n713362066_474005_8222-295x300.jpg" alt="" width="295" height="300" /></a>[/caption]

My wife is an accomplished person on every level.

She is beautiful, sexy, athletic, loving and intelligent, and she was and remains the best thing that ever happened to me.

She married me because she thought I was special, and there have been too many times in the last 18 years when I have been anything but special. There were too many times when I put myself first.

That's what has changed.

No more regrets, no more being crippled by things that happened 10 or 20 or 50 years ago. My friend Mick and I were talking about people who live in the past, and he mentioned something the great C.S. Lewis said about time.

He said there are four types of time in which people live -- the past, the present, the near-term future and eternity.

Of those four, Lewis said only two make sense.

He said we should live in the present as well as being aware of our role -- and our responsibility -- to eternity. A friend gave me a quote from the movie "Gladiator," in which Maximus says, "What we do in life echoes in eternity."

I love that quote. It says so much.

I hope with all my heart that my love for Nicole is worthy, that it will echo in eternity.

She means that much to me.