I found this quote on a blog from Nicki Koziarz a few days ago:
"What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it."
This quote has brought up so many thoughts over the past couple of days that I am still trying to sort through all of them. The one immediate thing that this quote did was challenge me to ask myself this question: "Is what I am doing/have done today meaningful?" It has challenged me to look beyond myself and what I'm doing in the moment, and think about the level of importance I am putting on any given activity.
It's given me a new sense of purpose at work...I'm exchanging a day of my life, five days a week, to make a difference in my workplace and the lives of the people I work with. The days I'm discontent at work are the days I'm focusing on what I'd rather be doing at home verses what I could be doing at work.
It's the reason I make sure that I am encouraging to my husband, and I do and say silly things to make him crack a smile. I make it a priority to ask him about his day and go "out on the town" with him, even if it's only to Target. I am exchanging days of my life to show the strongest, purest love humanly possible and to strive to become the kind of wife that Proverbs 31 describes.
It's the reason I make sure that I spend time with my mom, taking her shopping and out to eat and playing Parcheesi at her house. I've already lost my dad, without really having a chance to bond with him as an adult since he had been too sick and weak over the past couple of years. I won't have my mom forever, so I want to do what I can while I can. I am exchanging days of my life to make a difference in my mom's life, to break through the monotony and loneliness she is struggling through and give her encouragment as God works through me.
It's the reason I desire to be a better friend. I want to learn how to listen, really listen to what people are saying. I am exchanging days of my life to encourage the friends I have around me, and be like Jesus to them, not judging them but instead, supporting them as they realize the things they want to do in life.
At the end of the day, no matter how tired I am or how annoyed I get at the cats over their mischief, I'm thankful for the opportunity to rescue both of them, one through a rescue group and the second by just picking him up and fostering/adopting him myself. Their sweetest moments are worth every opened cabinet and torn trash bag that I find. I am exchanging days of my life to care for animals that God created. If He didn't have a purpose for them, they would not exist.
I want to make sure that I make a difference in each day. Even if it is in the smallest way, like picking up one piece of trash or wiping down a counter at work...I want to make sure that what is truly important to me is visible in my daily life.
