If It’s Monday, It’s Mama……”Life is Short if You Live to be Old” 

Your Mamaw Betty McKenzie was fond of saying to her family…live your life fully and completely because “life is short if you live to be old”.  This was a saying she was passing down from her father Challie Pelphrey, to your father, to you….and even to me. 

Life IS short…..even if you live to be 100, it will go by fast….like a wink and a blink.

When you are young, you think you have all the time in the world, but even your “now” is not promised from God.  And, He tells you in His word,

“¹³ Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” ¹⁴ 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. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

Mamaw knew and was trying to teach this principal to her family…..you do not know what tomorrow may bring, so live each day…each moment to its fullest and always leave your life in the “will of God” for HE is the only one who knows what to make of your life.

Thank God!

Life is so very short if you live to be old….which is why God calls us to live a disciplined and orderly and focused life. 

The ONLY way to be disciplined and orderly and focused is to ASK God to make you that way and to accept his discipline when He answers us affirmatively.  We need to seek Him in all things…in the smallest details of our lives and in the largest details…

And, the good news is, when we do that….He WILL answer us!

That is why prayer is so important!  Prayer is our avenue not only for coming to know God personally, but it is also our avenue for seeking Him to guide our lives…to put us on the path He would have us to go.

So, as you continue your life….SEEK God’s will every day on everything….

Live your life on purpose and with focus on Him…and, on His direction.

This is not easy to do because life gets in our way….we get caught up in the business of doing things that we lose track of our ultimate goals.  That is one reason each January our family has written down personal goals.  Having them written down helps you achieve them….it increases the likelihood you will achieve them. 

It keeps you “aware”….

And, being aware is important.

I pray for you daily to be filled with intention…purposefully pursing God and His will for your life in real and positive ways so that you are able to achieve all the good that God has in store for you…so that you are not blinded by good intentions or way-laid by lack of focus.  But, that you are able to daily give your life to Him and ask Him to direct your every step.

Another saying your Mamaw had was, “it is just as it is”….meaning that you have to accept the truth of things and just move on.  Good things…bad things…your Mamaw had her share of them in her life time.  She told me on many occasions when I would share things with her, “Lesa…sweetie….it is just as it is and you just have to accept that and move on.”  This was actually sage advice.  Because one thing life would do to you if you let it is immobilize you with its stresses and strives.  Don’t do that!

Learn now that life “is just as it is” and move past it…..when you lose focus or go off path, get back on.  When you fall and stumble and fail…..give it over to God and get up…dust off your knees and get back on track.

Even now, as you are a college student, employee, daughter, sister, friend……ASK God daily for His direction.  Ask him often to guide your path…to lay out before you His will for the steps you take.  Because, WHEN you do that…when you seek Him with all of your heart, He will answer you…when you place your hope in Him….he will live out His Hopes for You….

Deuteronomy 4:29

"But if from there you seek the Lord your god, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul."

He, like a father with His child…waits upon us, wanting what is best for us….with but one requirement…that we seek Him…His will…His direction, for all the days of our lives.

When we do that…seek Him….we abide IN Him and when we abide IN Him is when we have the best life has to offer us….

So, as you pass your days….don ‘t just let them go by….be purposeful……

And, always remember your Mamaw Betty’s words….”Life is short if you live to be old”….make the most of every day, living daily in

God’s way…..

Blessings,

ILYAOYMC,

Mama