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Savor the 'Little While' Each Day - Encouragement Café - November 6, 2015

 

Savor The ‘Little While’ Each Day

Café Menu for Friday, November 6, 2015

Today’s Special is:  We Are A Mist

Carefully prepared just for you by your friend, Paris Renae

Main Ingredient:

Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.  What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

James 4:14 NIV

Entrée

I’m getting older – hard to admit for a Boomer, I’m kicking and screaming all the way, but with age does come a lovely gift – perspective.

Through the first few decades of life, we rush through thinking things will always be the way they have been.  As children grow and move, (and bodies start to not look like thirty-something) we begin to realize we need to savor relationships, blue sky mornings, purring cats…

I’ve been married thirty-two years – sweeter is each day than when we were in our twenties and conquering our worlds.  Three grown children later, more heartfelt is each hug than even all those tickles and kisses of childhood.

I have a dear friend who lives across the country, but we praise our Father and thank Him that we have kept this friendship going all these years.  It has sustained us through good and hard times – youth and now wrinkles – naïve-ness and now wisdom.

Things aren’t the same on this side of fifty, (and I oh so long for my thirty-ish body) but I treasure things more.  I notice the small things, I make get-togethers count, I don’t wait to make the call or send the note…

Tomorrow is no guarantee no matter what age we are, but age helps you count today as the best (even if it’s the hardest).

So if you’re under fifty, my best advice is:

Watch your children and glory in all their antics, even the teenage ones that will have you second guessing parenthood.

Love your husband and respect him deeply even when he doesn’t hear you for the third time.

Work extra hard on your friendships to keep them going, even when it seems you may be the giver.

Relationships are the icing on the cake of living to His Glory.  How we handle them is our witness even when we think nobody is watching.

All the other stuff can’t hold a candle to:

Holding hands with the man who has been there through it all.

The gratitude of a child when they put their first born in your lap.

The oneness of a lifelong friend who has cheered you on.

We are a mist that appears for a little while, savor the ‘little while’ each day.

Take Out:

Today instead of staring at social media or texting, pick up the phone and have a long talk.  Instead of going through the motions of living together, take his hands and look him in the eyes.  Instead of checking off the children’s to-do lists, put your arm around them and read a book together.

Dessert:

Father, indeed our time on earth is short, but oh so sweet when we make it all about others instead of about self.  Show us Lord, how to let go of our agendas so we can look back and cherish a full life.  As we are blessed with each relationship, help us make note of all the sweetness each one holds, forgiving as we want to be forgiven.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

© 2015 by Paris Renae.  All rights reserved.

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