Remember What is Important

This week has held days of preparing for the holidays-shopping for Thanksgiving dinner, cleaning the house, listening to Christmas music, putting up lights on the outside of our home. I've been a mixture of emotions. I am excited to spend time with family. I love getting the lights up on our home. But then there is this.....this is the first holiday season without my mother-in-law. It's difficult. We miss her. She passed at the end of April of this year. My heart also thinks of other loved ones we have lost this year, and along with over the years. I also think of some of the difficult situations that have come about this year in our lives and the lives of friends and family. Tears stream down my face at the most inopportune times, it seems. Memories are triggered by food, ornaments, decorations, songs, something someone says and the tears come. Memories are good, though. The remind us of intentional times spent together.

I have so much to be grateful for and I don't want to forget that. I have challenged myself to a gratitude challenge every day. It helps to keep things in the right perspective and to focus on what is good, what I have, and to be grateful for those who are in my life. Life is precious. Live every moment. Love deeply. Put your phones down and spend time with those you love. Laugh. Cry. Make memories. 

At the end of your life, you will not wish you spent more time on your phone, staring at a screen. You will remember, cherish, and long for moments with loved ones, so cherish them now. Remember what is truly important. People. Face to face. Real conversations. Time together. People. 

Live Life With A Purpose

Do you see the gifts around you? Do you experience life or are you just coasting by, with your eyes always on your phone/tablet/electronics?  Life is precious and filled with beauty.  When is the last time you experienced life, really experience it? 

When is the last time you enjoyed a sunset?  I mean really took it in, and truly saw, experienced, enjoyed, sat in awe of the colors?  

Have you taken time to see the small details in a flower, that is here today and gone tomorrow, but the amazing details and colors that God put in those flowers for us to enjoy is incredible.  

Put the phone down and look at the beauty around you!  

Enjoy.

   Experience.

       Live life to the fullest.  

           Be thankful.
          

Life is short.  Don't waste it.  Don't let your legacy be that you spent a lot of time texting, staring at an electronic.  Let your legacy be that life was precious to you, and you enjoyed it, you took it in, you loved others, and you talked to them, face to face.  Let people remember that you lived out your life, that you saw the beauty and you appreciated it.  Let your legacy be one of a life well lived, on purpose, with a purpose.  

Be available.  Others need you.  But to be available,  you need to put the electronics down and have face to face relationships.