Enjoying Every Moment, by Nina Keegan -Owens

Do you remember being young? Being a kid, you could not wait to be a full fledged teenager. In your late teens and early 20's, if you were anything like me, you were always in such a hurry to get to that next great stage in life? Always a race against time! It seems we just couldn't wait to be all grown up and play the proverbial game of life. If you were in high school then you could not wait to step foot onto the fabulous campus quad of your college destination, if you were in college, then getting out, getting a"real"job, finding prince charming and getting married in a gorgeous,white, chiffon gown, in a flower filled church, and dancing the night away to your favorite songs, played by the best local band you skillfully managed to book for your reception, buying the white picket fenced home and having the national average of 3.2 kids to carpool around suburbia was the absolute end all of a great life. The pictures in our minds of the perfect life, was the life we had seen many times before over and over again on a Lifetime movie, or the Hallmark channel.
How fast could we get there? Never fast enough! Time has flown by at a record setting pace since those days. Now if I could only take it all back, if we could only stop the clock, rewind it a bit, and push replay.. Maybe this time around we could use the pause button and relax in the moments a bit longer and savor the place God had placed us for just a bit more time.

Why does it seem we always want what we cant have? Even if what we want is looking in the rearview mirror. We can't get back the times we hastily wished away. We will have to rely on our recollections, our scattered memories, and cherish every new and glorious moment from this day forward.

The good old days are the days we seemed to have taken for granted, being young, care free, and naive. Is youth really wasted on the young? Will it always be like this? Will we ever just "get it?" will we ever be able to sink our teeth into today and bite off a huge piece and whole heartedly enjoy it?

The days we wished for, the days we could not wait for, are the days, that never really get here quite the way we had envisioned . Sure we hit those target points and specific goals of marriage, careers, and all, but while we are there in those moments we are always thinking of what's next.

We have our precious babies and can't wait until they are finally sleeping through the night and actively anticipate the day of not changing any more diapers... Then the focus is getting them out of school, and through graduation etc, etc,. We always seem unsatisfied, we need a promotion at work, a bigger house in a better neighborhood... We always just can't wait for something.
Where does it all end? What does it get you? We throw the ladder down from our lives and as if we are racing to escape from a burning building.

On this ladder of life, we should be climbing up, climbing higher. We need to stop and pause on each and every single step. This wonderful life, where each stage is meant for greatness in it's own right... We will never be able to appreciate the good things unless we have experienced some bad. We can't have successes without having had some failures.
We need to be in the "now" the "present", right here. Look at where you are at, you are exactly where you are supposed to be! Enjoy this random moment in time because it is so fleeting, this moment, gone in a flash is one you will never get back. Pay closer attenton to your life, focus on the task at hand, the tasks of today, this very day!

The Bible says in Matthew 6:34, Do not worry about tomorrow today, for each day has enough trouble of its own.
In other words, if you are so busy thinking about the future , you miss the here and now. Bloom where you are planted!!! This is your time, this is your journey unfolding. This is your tiny space in an infinitely vast universe.. This is YOUR day carved out of time by God for you to enjoy!

My oldest son Kyle is graduating from Baylor University in a few short days.
I look at this man and all of his accomplishments, how proud I am, he's so motivated and ready to get finished and get to the next stage of his life, seems only yesturday, I was wishing for him to sleep through the night. Memories of his childhood flood my mind.. In a flash He is grown, he is a man with tons of dreams and ambitions.
I see so much of myself in him, but only now as a mom, I want to tell him to wait, slow it down a bit. Life will be there, it's coming no matter what so look around and bask in this precious speck of time.. This sculpted nugget of space is the good stuff!!! The miraculously good stuff given to us by a generous loving God to be savored each and every day of our lives. I dont want him to miss a thing.... The video keeps rolling... No Hollywood producer is yelling "cut"!!!" Take two!" We get only one precious, get it right the first time, life!!! ENJOY!!!!

God please bless Kyle as he graduates, may he savor and enjoy his life each day. Protect him and guide him on his new path in life. May we all never take a single moment for granted and enjoy our days completely and effortlessly, and may we enjoy every second of this precious time you have given us!
Thank you father!
In Jesus name we pray!
Amen