Life Is Short
Three years ago today, February 4, 2017, words tumbled out as to the brevity of life and the importance of little things. I've been away from my blog an embarrassingly long time, but life's too short to live in regret, right? So today is a fresh start to offer words that I hope will inspire you to love the ones God has placed in your precious life.
Life is short. Love others while you can. Offer a smile to a stranger. Hold open that door with pleasant courtesy. Make cookies or soup or whatever for your neighbor. Don’t dismiss the elderly—or teenagers—but honor them with a listening ear and heart.
If you are blessed to have family living with you, savor that season. Hug. Laugh. Hold close the moments with gratitude. In all the messiness and mayhem, embrace the delicious madness and be emboldened to show your fierce and tender love. These days together are more fleeting than they seem while in the midst of the rising tides of life that threaten to overwhelm you. Being intentional shores up the banks of crumbling lives with love and fortifies the family—any relationship—with strength.
Every person in our scope, in our particular sphere of life, needs to be valued and loved. Accepted. Understood. Treasured. The smallest of acts can often yield the largest gifts of love. A birthday card in the mail. (Yes, the kind you send with a stamp.) All kinds of cards—like sympathy, get well, congratulations, thinking of you, and thank you. A handwritten note of appreciation will rarely see the inside of the recyclable bin or shredder.
Life’s too short to stand back in our shallow selves and wait for others to make the first move. We possess the amazing ability and privilege to extend a warm handshake that opens hearts and builds bridges. Don’t miss these precious moments to love others. Moments that add up to years and then a lifetime with no regrets—because you loved with the love given you.
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Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:7-11 (NRSV)
God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
1 John 4:15-16 (NRSV)