If you had 5 days left to live, what would you do with your time?

Once time is spent it can’t be redeemed which is why it’s so precious and valuable.  Time is the most precious gift you can give someone.  Taking a few moments and being fully present with your spouse, children, parents, friends, coworkers and family is rare.  Most of the time, when we are with others, we are not fully present.  We are distracted–checking our phone during a conversation, ordering from a fast food restaurant while talking to a friend, watching tv during a conversation with our spouse, doing laundry while talking to your kids. What if we did each of those activities fully focused on the other person? What if we took in each word they spoke, listened intently, offered meaningful conversation if they wanted it?  I think our would and relationships with others would be totally different.

On the other hand, what if you truly valued your time and didn’t let others recklessly use it? What if you valued it in such a way that you were mindful of every activity you committed to or didn’t commit to?  What if your time was limited to just a few days left on earth or a few hours?  What would you do differently?  The truth is our time really is limited. We don’t know how much we have.  Our days are numbered so we should be careful and purposeful with how we use each minute.

Take a moment and think about it…do you value your time? Do you allow others or things to steal your time? Do you give your time freely to those who really matter in your life? Are you present?  Give your gift of time wisely.

~Coletta Jones Patterson

*Check out my latest book, “Developing Faith that Wins: Stories of My Journey” on Amazon.