A Moment and a Choice

I believe not all days are memorable in the same way. I also know that it is not always the days you think will be life-altering beforehand. Certainly there are days where beforehand we know it will be big. Taking mental snapshots on days like that can be difficult, especially taking the correct ones, but it can be done. The difficulties come when the day hinges on something where it becomes indelibly printed on our brain when we never saw it coming.

I've heard it said that we should live every day as if it were our last, because one day we'll actually be right. I cannot debate the truth of the second half of that statement, but I do think if we fail to live each day as if it is our last, we'll be fine most of our lives. And the one day we are wrong, we don't really have much time to regret it. In fact, I believe we should spend more time living as if we have many days before us, rather than none.

If we live as if we have our whole lives ahead of us and will have to live with the repercussions of those decisions for the remainder of our lives, we will lead good lives. We will make decisions that we believe will look better when revealed in the light of the next day. I think we should live our lives deliberately to the point where we make wise decisions.

I do think in our normal course of living, we should live our lives as if it might be a memorable day. We have days that pop out of nowhere all the time. We always come across moments where things happen that will be big events in our lives. Making memories of those days and moments is possible and necessary. Nevertheless, sometimes we look back and realize there are specific moments which we don't have enough of a memory.

This is where I think intentionality may need to go to the next level. Bob Stoops put together a picture of his team a couple years back after a disappointing loss. When asked about why he would gather a big group like that after such a difficult time. He credited Steve Spurrier for teaching him the importance of capturing memories. My sister has been wonderful at taking snapsots of the mundane.

As wonderful or as disappointing as individual moments may be, putting together a memory enhancer of groups and events, even after potentially negative feelings can serve to expediate the healing also. We can make a choice to make each moment memorable. I've started to become more itentional about cataloging my moments. It is an amazing practice that I recommend duplicating!