Make Each Moment Count: Our Story Matters

On February 3^rd, I faced one of the scariest events of my life. I was grilling hamburgers for my family (like I have thousands of times before) and the propane tank leaked and a fire from the grill suddenly exploded. I am so thankful to God for my being inside the house (getting a spatula for 45 seconds) to flip the burgers (instead of the deck) when this occurred. Or, I would not be writing this to you. My wife and three daughters did great and got out as well. We all made it. I am so very thankful. Our home suffered massive damage from fire and smoke, and dealing with this will be an ongoing process for many weeks ahead. Thus, it has (taken this amount of time) for me to be prepared to write a blog post.

Here is what I want us to think about in this post. What is our story? What do we want people to remember about us? There is a difference in truly living life and simply existing in life. All of this goes deeper than our job title, responsibilities, or industry sector we work in. If you think about it, every day we add something to our life story. This can be good, bad, or neutral. Our story develops each day based on how we live our lives, what we say, how we act, what we do and who we are.

Life is a present. Life is the present. We cannot change the past nor can we alter the future. We can simply plan (to the best of our human ability) for the future and come to grips with the past. And, we can always seek to make others’ lives better in every encounter we have with them. Do you want to be this type of person? This type of organization? I know I do. Life is stressful and difficult. We all have a lot on our plates. So ... love someone. Say please and thank you and mean it. Tell someone you care about them and help someone who is not expecting it.

If you think about it, each minute (in short time) ... becomes an hour ... which quickly becomes a day. In time, these days blend together to become months and years. The years add up quickly, and even if we are healthy, we only have so many on this Earth.

We are not guaranteed tomorrow or even an hour from now. I was reminded about this in a dramatic way on February 3^rd and thus want to take every chance I can to encourage others to make our world a better place. How? By helping people grow, love others, quit focusing on things that don’t matter and making a difference in the “present” which is the only time you know you have.

Each moment is precious. I challenge you, as I have done to myself, to make your story count. I am so thankful to be here, have my family safe, and have the privilege of writing this post to share with you. May God bless each one of you. Have a great week.