Someone once said, "Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory." I think to myself how sad that saying is, but even more sad is the fact that a lot of times the saying is true. Nowadays we rush through everything we do. We don't take the time to 'stop and smell the roses' or in this case stop and value each moment. Let me explain. We rely on social media for communicating with each other instead of writing a note or talking to each in person. We don't even fully type out our words while texting, chatting, or whatever form of communicating you use. Everything is abbreviated LOL or TTYL. We say we are too busy to truly communicate with each other. If we do take time to visit our loved ones and friends or take a vacation, a lot of us probably still rush through these visits or we are still working or texting someone else while we are visiting our loved ones. I think a lot of people have the mentality that we can do that another time or maybe next visit we can do something together, when in reality we really do not know. We never know how much time we have with each other or how many more chances we may get to do something with our friends and loved ones. We need to value the time we have together from the simplest things to the big things. We shouldn't take moments spent together with our loved ones for granted. We don't want to wake up one day and say to ourselves 'I wish I would've have spent more time with them' or 'If I only I had done that when I still had the chance'. Memories are a wonderful thing to have and hold on to, but we need to realize how special time spent with each is while we are still together instead of years down the road. Time is a gift from God and we need to use it wisely and value each moment that we have.

Have you ever played tug-of-war or watched a group of people play the game? If so then you know how difficult it is to get win the game; especially if there are strong people on both sides. I give this illustration because sometimes we try to play "tug-of-war" with God. We want to do our own thing the way we want to do it whether it is right or not. We think we know what is best for ourselves because it is our life and we can do what we want to with it. What we need to realize is that God knows what is best for us and what we should do. Sometimes we don't want to follow God's will because we think that we will miss out on the fun. This is where we start to play "tug-of-war" with God. We want one thing and God tells us to do another. We start to do what we want and it seems like everything starts to fall apart. Our days become miserable and we don't know what to do make them wonderful again. We try many different things to try to get things back on track when all we need to do is align our will with God's will and our days will become a whole lot better. We will not miss out on anything by following God's will; in fact, we will be a lot happier and have more fun by following God's will!