Life Means So Much

Just found out today that a friend lost her father to a heart attack -out of the blue, unexpectedly.  Hearing the news brought me back to the day I lost my father.  The phone call came from my brother early on a Monday morning.  I thought he was calling to tell me how he'd done in a tennis tournament he'd played over the weekend.  I was not prepared for news of my father's death.  Is anyone ever prepared for that sort of call?  The call with news that you have cancer, or that your child was in a horrible accident, or that your best friend has passed away unexpectedly.  These kinds of things are never easy to take. 

Life is so precious, isn't it?  But somehow we forget that.  We go through our days, living a life that can seem so plain, hum-drum, even boring in its existence.  'Nothing will change,' we think, 'nothing will ever change.'  But I think this sort of attitude lulls us into a stupor - one in which we take life for granted.  After all, our days are endless, aren't they?   We can spend life however we want to.  Things will remain status quo.  There's just one problem with this theory;  there is no such thing as status quo.  Life is always changing, however small the increments may seem.  The world continues to spin, with or without our noticing it.

One lesson God really impressed  on my heart when I was still single, was to not wish my days away, pining for a husband.   So I tried to enjoy my singleness, embrace it almost.  Looking back now, I realize what a blessing that time was for me.  And the thing is, I can never go back.  I can never recapture that single, carefree life, much as I might want to, hard as I might try.  Life has moved on, and so have I. 

Raising two little ones these days, there are so many phases I am tempted to wish away.  How about fast forwarding through potty training, or the terrible twos, or having to put on socks, coats, tie shoes, etc. every time we go somewhere?  These are phases I would easily skip.  But when I'm tempted to do that, I call to mind that important lesson I learned long ago.   No day can ever  be called back into existence.  As the saying goes, "Time marches on, and waits for no man."

Wanted to share a favorite quote that I  think is very pertinent to this topic.  The quote comes from a bible study I was in several years ago, Becoming a Woman of Beauty. "Thus God works out His own high purposes slowly as it seems oftentimes, but surely and with unerring wisdom, until all things being done, the end is sudden, dramatic, complete."

These slow, humdrum, sometimes boring days, have purpose. They have meaning. Take each one and make the most of it.  You never know when your end will come.  When it does come, will you be able to say,' I made the most of each day I was given.'  My wish for you, my wish for myself is that we are able to answer emphatically, "Yes!"