Life is too short to work a job you do not like, too short to keep the whole house clean all of the time, and too short to spend more than a few nights a week away from home. It’s too short to read all of the junk email, and too short not to take a nap when you need one. Life is too short to let a day pass without hugging your wife, child, and friends, too short to wear neckties every day, and too short to care about whether all of my clothes match. It’s too short to stay indoors when the trees turn color in fall, or when it snows, or when the spring blossoms come out. Life is too short to work in a room without windows, too short to put off telling friends and family that I love them, and too short to live at a distance from people I care about. It’s too short to eat rice cakes every day, too short not to run through the sprinklers, and too short not to try something new once a week.

Life is too short to refuse to offer a kind word to someone who needs it, too short to turn a deaf ear to someone who is hurting, and too short to pass by someone who needs a hand. Life is too short to withhold a Word of life, too short not to pray for someone we know is in trouble, and too short to neglect that note of encouragement we were meaning to send. Life is too short not to send toys to children with life-threatening diseases, too short not to offer to babysit for exhausted parents, and too short not to give your co-worker a bouquet of flowers. Life is too short not to shovel your neighbor’s walk, too short not to visit a retirement home for an afternoon, and too short not to spend a morning writing letters to people we love. Life is too short to let a week pass without hearing someone say, “Thank you. You really didn’t have to … ”

James 4:14: Life is a vapor, here today, gone tomorrow.

(Image by athree23 from Pixabay)