Make the Most of Every Opportunity

I wake up between 5:00-5:30 every morning, without an alarm clock. My husband sleeps in later, so I have some quiet time each morning. During that time this morning, I watched last week's message from our pastor online. He said something that really stood out to me in light of last week's events. "Make the most of every opportunity."
That is a statement I fully believe in, and I'm sure it has greater meaning to many people today and in the days to come. It also reminds me of a quote from Albert Einstein. "Learn from yesterday. Live for today. Hope for tomorrow." We cannot change the past, but we can make the most of the opportunities we have been given, with the hope for a brighter future.
The pastor also said, "The best gift you can give your family is your presence." By this he meant that sometimes, although we may be at home, we're so preoccupied with other things that we don't make time to have a relationship with our family. How many of us spend our evenings in separate rooms watching various TV shows? How may nights do we spend in the a room together, yet each person in the room is glued to his or her personal electronic device? What happened to family nights? I certainly didn't grow up in a perfect family, but we played cards and board games after we ate dinner and washed the dishes. Anyone want to play Rook? :)
I read an anonymous quote recently I would like to share. "Love the people God gave you because He will need them back one day." There are many important things in life; jobs, housework, school, sports. The list could go on and on; but none of those things will matter as life progresses. What will matter is your family and the people you love, so love the people God gave you. We never know how long we have to love them, and that time is precious and irreplaceable.

Ecclesiastes 3

New Living Translation (NLT)

A Time for Everything

3 For everything there is a season,
    a time for every activity under heaven.
 A time to be born and a time to die.
    A time to plant and a time to harvest.
 A time to cry and a time to laugh.
    A time to grieve and a time to dance.
 A time to search and a time to quit searching.
    A time to keep and a time to throw away.  
 A time to tear and a time to mend.
    A time to be quiet and a time to speak.