The last 24 hours of your life

Time is of the essence. 

Life is too short.

Today is a day you will never get back.

Tomorrow is never promised...

All familiar sayings, and great tweetable one-liners, but do we really live like they are true? I heard a captivating thought one morning on my way to work and it has never left me since. Ill ask you the very same question.

If you found out you only had 24 hours left to live, how would you live it?

I heard it worded another thought-provoking way when watching Zack Sobiech's video "My Last Days" and again, I'll make the same statement to you. 

You don't have to find out you're dying to start living. 

On November 11, 2008 the world lost one of the most amazing women who, in my opinion, has ever lived. And I had the honor of calling her my Memaw. To sum her up, read Proverbs 31:10-31. She was exactly that. One of the most remarkable things about my Memaw, aside from how she lived her life, was how she left it. 

Impacting. 

Inspiring.

Motivating.

Loving.

Encouraging.

Thought-provoking.

Heart-changing.

If you had 24 hours left to live, could you say that the way you lived your life inspired someone to be happier? To love harder? To care more? To make a better decision? To make a difference? 

Could you say that after your time on earth is done that your legacy will still be inspiring others to live a better life? A life lived like they only had 24 hours left? 

Last night I took a lady named Gladys out to dinner. If you are reading this blog you probably already know all about her, because you got here from clicking a link on another social media page- and Lord knows I've posted something about Gladys every time I spend time with her. Why? Because she inspires me. And even more awesome than that, my posts about her I've been told have inspired others. She inspires people who have never even met her. I want to live like that.

She will be 96 on July 10 so she's got a lot of life in her rear view. She lives in a nursing home and is legally blind. She has no real freedom because she can't drive. She can't write, she can't dial numbers on the phone, she cant stand for long because her back hurts, she can't walk long distances without oxygen and taking breaks because her ankle bothers her. She relies on nurses (whoaren't  nice) for most every thing. She lost her husband of 49 years and 5 months in 1986 (and says she misses him like it happened yesterday). One of her daughters has taken pretty much everything she had and doesn't ever call or visit, the other comes and sees her once a week. She has a total of 13 grand/great/great-great grandkids but doesn't know the last time she saw or heard from any of them, except through a thank you card (that she can't read without waiting on someone to read it to her) from HER sending something to THEM (despite their lack of thoughtfulness). She has a sister and a brother that she can't see because they're all pretty much in the same situation. She can't get to church (which she said is the thing she wishes she could do most) and she's stuck in a nursing home every single day with just windows to see the outside world... Ok, You get the point. But the awesome thing about Gladys is you would never know any of those things unless she tells you (never complaining, just talking) Because she's so humble and happy... always. She will say when things have hurt her feelings, or if she misses her husband, freedom, etc. but never complains. She always makes it clear that she's lived a great life and has no regrets. Key word: no regrets. In 96 years of life... No regrets?! That's admirable. I want to be able to say when I'm at the end of my rope, that I've made the most of every opportunity, loved as best as I could, encouraged as much as I could, been as thoughtful as I possibly could and been the best me that I could... To the point where I have no regrets.

Stop living like you have forever, and start  living like you only have 24 hours left. Don't put off for tomorrow what you could get done today. Don't put off right now what should have been done yesterday. 

Make the phone call

Send the text message

Say the apology 

End the argument

Stop the bitterness

Do something nice for someone

Make a change

Be an encourager

Be happy 

Seize the moment 

Do your best

BE your best 

Live like you're in the last 24 hours of your life. 

Live like Memaw. 

Live like Gladys. 

Xoxo,

Meg

Show love, be love.

When a thought is taking over my brain, my Facebook statuses have a tendency to turn into novels and Twitter's 140 character max always goes into the un-tweetable negatives - causing me to abbeviate so much that it hardly makes sense, or having to use #LT 50 times over to get my full thought out. So here I am... creating a blog.

Welcome to my very first one!

When blogging first came around I thought it was stupid. Who wants to read a diary? That's kind of how I looked at it. But then I started reading some, and found them to be super inspirational (depending on who's blog you read, haha). 

I don't consider myself to live an extremely exciting, adventurous life... But I have made it my mission to show love and be love to anyone around me every chance I can. In a world that seriously lacks that very thing, in my opinion, that could make the biggest change... It has had some pretty cool outcomes. 

A few months ago I heard something in a sermon that has forever changed my way of thinking when it comes to loving the person in front of me. It was an equation, using Vertical Church as the example, and this is how it went: we reach 10,000 people a month that never new God before, they give their hearts to Christ and never leave the faith. If no one else was ever born in the world and we were reaching 10,000 people a month it would take roughly 58,600 years to change the world for Christ. BUT if just 1 person caught a fire to reach someone in 1 year, taking 6 months to build a strong relationship with them. They start coming to church and building a relationship with God, and the next 6 months you disciple them to go out with you the next year... and that year each of you reach one person, and then the next year you have 4 people each reaching 1 person and so on... It would take only 40 years to reach the entire world. 

58,600 vs 40.

In one lifetime you could see the entire world changed just by one person making such a lasting impact on one person that it creates a chain reaction. 

Every one is so quick to talk about how awful the world is now a days, but  Imagine the impact we could have if just 1 person showed 1 person genuine love and kindness in such a way that It sparks a chain reaction... 

Show love, be love. You never know who needs it, and your love could change their life... Or be the spark that initiates a changed world. 

Some people may think my blog posts are boring, others may find them stupid... and maybe, just maybe they might inspire someone to make a change. 

If 500 people read my blog, 499 people thought it was dumb and 1 person was inspired to make a change... It's 100% worth it. 

Be the change you want to see in the world. Start with loving the person In front of you. 

Xoxo

Meg