Last weekend my family and I went up to South Dakota for Thanksgiving.  We were there to celebrate, of course, but we also had some work to do.  Mom's house has been sold, and we were there to clean out the storage room.  A few boxes of mine were in that room, and as I sifted through them, all of these memories came flooding back.

One item that particularly interested me was a box  filled with letters from my grade school years up to high school.  It was so fun to read about the good old days. I was amazed at the friends I had back then - how good they were to me, how much we cared about each other, the fun times we experienced together.  Looking back  to those days made me remember something very important; life is precious. 

It's easy to trudge through our days taking them for granted, thinking that nothing ever changes, nothing ever will.  But that is so untrue.  Life does change.  We change.  Our circumstances change.  The problem is that in the midst of the monotony of everyday life we forget that.

So how do we stop taking our days for granted?  How do we live each day to the fullest making each day count?   I think one way we can do this is by realizing that whatever a day brings to us, whether it's craziness, sadness, loneliness, satisfaction, peace, or joy;  it will be a day that we can never reclaim.   I don't know about you, but I want to live my life without regrets; no looking back, no wishing to revisit the past.  Who knows but that tomorrow will bring an unexpected curve in the road, or even a dead end.  Who knows what's waiting just around the corner?  Only God does. 

As the saying goes, "Time marches on and waits for no man."   May we all march in a way that brings glory to God - a way that we can look back and say, "Yes we lived each day as if it were our last." 
All of this reminds me of a quote I once came across.  It's a quote that helps me to remember to find the miracle in the monotony of everyday life.

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. ~Cynthia Heald

Our lives are strung together day by day.  Each one has meaning.  Each one has purpose.  All of the little days of life are leading us to an end that will be sudden, dramatic, complete.  So as we go along day by day, may we march joyfully to the beat of the drum of time looking back with no regrets.