Priceless Moments in Our Hope Chest
Treasure of time
“Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others.”
– Rosa Parks
Do you wish all of your memories could be locked up safe in a keepsake chest forever?
I often wonder what my family and others will remember about me when I move from this classroom to heaven. Life is a significant assignment with lesson upon lesson.
Do you ever wonder what your purpose day after day is all about? I know that to grow into being the person we were created to be, we must learn to deal with challenging people in our life. Loving people who make it impossible to love should become our life mission.
I used to work for one of the top weight loss companies. I mention it because I want to share one of my biggest life lessons on the job. I remember this lady came into our meeting wanting to join our weight loss plan.
She was so mean, very snippy, plain old rude. After months of verbal abuse, I asked my boss to please join us to observe. I remember my boss was very impressed with my professionalism. Well, of course, I was, considering my boss was right there! She spoke to the woman privately to inform her that her behavior was not acceptable.
The following week, I dreaded seeing this bully again. I thought she might not ever come back to our meetings. I’m sure it was even a prayer of mine.
To my utter shock, she returned with a new attitude. She seemed like a new person. She even lost a couple of pounds. She only came back a few more times and, without a farewell, suddenly disappeared.
However, not without teaching me a few things:
- Life lesson: when someone is disrespectful or rude to us, it’s not about us.
- Even more critical life lesson: life isn’t about us anyway! We must stop taking things so personally.
“People are not mean to us because they don’t like us, but because they don’t like themselves.”
– Jodi Aman
I share this life-changing story in hopes that we will each make our treasured time on earth even more impactful on others in a positive way. Do you treat people the way you would like to be treated? Do you love like it was your last day on earth?
What if one day, when we get to heaven, a treasure box will open with a display of all of our life situations? What if the way we treated others throughout our lifetime were to flash before our eyes? What if it would share both the good and bad times, and judgement was present? It’s never too late for a fresh start.
Fresh start
As we go through our lives, every good and bad thing that happens to us has a purpose. We can either remain stuck in our growth or learn from our experiences.
Our life here is temporary, but the way we treat others will last into eternity. Do we get tired of serving others? Here’s a secret, we aren’t doing anything here on earth for anyone but our Lord and Savior. Whatever you do for someone here, it’s ultimately being done for God and He sees all.
“And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.”
– Matthew 10:42
We were created to serve others. It makes it easier to be nice when you know that someone else sees you, even when somebody isn’t treating you well.
Your lifetime missions
Why have you been created? We all have talents and passions. Do you use your gifts to serve others? How might you start using your time here differently, knowing that this is just time preparing us for the true treasures yet to come?
Our days or time here is short; it’s not about our to-do lists. It’s about our treasured moments in time to touch others in profound ways using the gifts we have.
If we do nothing else with our treasured time today than to know God better and how we can serve Him with our time here, then we’ve indeed had a productive day.
Do we need to take a step back to understand better what our treasured times are all about? They’re not about us, and all we can achieve in this lifetime.
Treasured Time is about how we are willing to love in the time we are given here and, yes, even those difficult people that come across our paths. How will you fill your treasure box using your time today? Our secret ingredient is love!
I’m writing this as a thank you note to that lady who taught me one of my biggest life lessons, making my assignment here clearer. We are to be servants with our time.
Thank you, Trista Signe Ainsworth, for your prompt this week that sparked this memory tucked away in my hope chest. I’m thankful for your publication, Thank You Notes; it’s genuinely a treasured gift in time.