I read a few blogs each day.  It helps to satisfy my hunger for reading, despite the lack of time that I have to actually read books other than the Bible and what I’m reading for my classes.  I find it to be a nice stress reliever; and for some blogs that I have been reading for years, I almost feel like I know the author.

I guess I kinda do know the authors.  After years of reading about their successes, their struggles, their faith, their loves, their losses, their joy, their pain…I kinda do know them.  And even though I only “know” them through what they write, that doesn’t change the fact that I feel connected to them; that their words and their thoughts have moved me to pray, to change, to seek, to love, to grow.

So, my heart has been heavy over the past week or so because two of the bloggers that I read regularly have both lost their sisters.  They aren’t related, but the stories of their losses are very similar.  And because I feel like I “know” them, my heart aches for them.

As I’ve read their blogs through this difficult time, what resonates to me is that life matters.  All of it matters.  All the time. And it matters that much more because we don’t know how much time we have left.

So much of life is spent focused on things that don’t matter: pleasing people we don’t really care about, acquiring things that we will only leave behind, worried about things that are really of very little significance.  I’m so guilty of it.  I’ve wasted so much of my life focused on the wrong things that don’t really matter.  My life matters.  How I spend my time matters.  Choosing to value people over things matters.  Looking for the opportunity to always do right by others matters.  Seeking each opportunity to make a memory instead of an excuse matters.  Taking every chance possible to leave each person, place, and thing that I encounter better than I found it matters.  Loving people beyond their faults matters.  Forgiveness matters.  Investing in my family matters.  Leaving a legacy of faith and love matters.  Life matters.

While I am praying for my dear blog friends, I am also praying that God “teach us to number our days” so that we can fully understand and execute wisdom in life through acting in grace, humility, love and faith.

Life matters.  Live wisely.  Love freely.

Be encouraged!