Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine. We may need the money for something else.
Diane and I would often drop Victory off at our friend's farm and head out for a road trip on the Harley for a week or so and we would always tell our friends tojust say when, and the bike was their's to take and get away for a while. But they were always too busy. They said someday when they get caught up they would take us up on the offer as they had sold their bike years before. And as we sat with our friend after her husband's funeral she shared with us those last days they had together before the cancer took him and he went home to be with the Lord and how she wishes they would have taken us up on the offer and taken the bike and just gone away together. So sad, he was only 47 years old.
I got to thinking one day about all those people on the Titanic who passed up a nice steak for a burger or desert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back or to save a couple of bucks because we need to be good stewards. And when it comes to giving a tip we seem to find every excuse to be cheep. From now on, I'm going to try to be a little more flexible and a lot more giving.
How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn't suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word 'refrigeration' mean nothing to you? Walk away it will keep.
How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched 'Jeopardy'or your favorite game on television? And when you turn to them at the commercial they were gone.
I cannot count the times I called my friend and said , 'How about going to lunch in a half hour?' She would gas up and stammer, 'I can't. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain' And my personal favorite: 'It's Monday.' She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.
Because People cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches.. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves, when all the conditions are perfect! What a joke !!!!!
We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained. We'll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet. We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of trade school.
Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken and we notice how quiet it's gotten, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of 'I'm going to,' 'I plan on,' and 'Someday, when things are settled down a bit.' or why didn't I help that ministry? I really could have and I didn't.
When anyone calls my 'seize the moment' friends, they are always open to adventure and available for trips. They keep an open mind on new ideas. Their enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with them for five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Rollerblades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord, or build a ranch to change lives and build hope for the next generation. And maybe just maybe, it's time to not only hope and pray for a miracle but time to step out in faith and watch it happen.
My lips have not touched a lot of ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process. The other day, I stopped the truck and bought a triple-decker maple walnut ice-cream. If my truck had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.
Now...go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to do...not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? ;And why are you waiting? Put aside what you're thinking and decide from the heart before the feeling gets to your head because your head will figure out a reason to stop you, but please, that call needs to be made.
Have you ever stopped to watched your grandkids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain splashing on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask 'How are you?' Do you stop wait and hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head or wonder what you can do to make that portfolio more impressive? Ever told your child, 'We'll do it tomorrow.' And in your haste, not see her sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say 'Hi'?
We were able to listen to this band out in Nova Scotia at an event for a thousand villages. It's short but let it take you back home.
When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift....Thrown away.... Life is not a race. Take it slower. Take time to listen not only to people's words but to their hearts. Shake off the hardness, God has so much for each of us. Hey look there he is right beside you. Hear the music before the song is over, meet Jesus before it's too late He's right there waiting for you to take that one step.
I think we should have popcorn for supper tonight, how about you? Be blessed.
