Your Life is a Gift

My birthday was on Saturday.  Over the past few days, I reflected on how blessed I am to have made it to 24.  To me, 24 years seems like a long time, yet I am amazed at how quickly the time has gone.  I have grown and learned a lot along the way but there is so much more to learn and so many more ways to grow.  Through my reflecting, the main thought that kept occurring to me is that life is truly a gift.  Sure, most of us know that life is a gift but do we truly appreciate it?  Do we wake up each day just trying to survive and get by or do we wake up, grateful to be alive and breathing and ready to fulfill our mission?

God has given us the precious gift of life.  How do we treat the gift of life that has been entrusted to us?  I think we often wish time away.  Maybe we go from day to day, desperately grasping for the weekend.  We might tell ourselves every week that we just have to make it through this week.  Other times, we try too hard to fast-forward to the future, failing to focus on the present moment we are in.  Whether we are experiencing big moments or the small, ordinary moments of each day, we are invited to live life to the full.  Jesus came so that we would have life and have it more abundantly. (John 10:10).

Are we following God’s will for our lives and fulfilling our mission and purpose?  I think sometimes we can get so caught up in discovering what this is that we become overwhelmed.  Rather than being consumed by this huge question, we can scale it down to a smaller level.  Someone wise once told me that we should wake up each day and ask, “Lord, what is your will for me today?”

I want to wake up each day and ask God to open up my eyes to see His blessings more clearly.  I want to open up my heart more deeply to love in a greater capacity.  I want to ask God how I can serve Him better and love Him more than the day before.  Whether you are 14, 24, 54, 74, or somewhere in between, your life is a gift and has purpose.  You are a gift to the world.  You are a blessing to others in a way that no one else can be.

Lord, we are your servants.  Help us to seek your will each day.  Help us to recognize that our lives are the most precious gift you have given us.  Give us the grace to say “yes” to you so that we can fulfill our mission to serve you and love you.  May we always remember that, whether we are “young” or “old”, to be alive and breathing is enough.