Quote from Forum Archives on November 6, 2003, 10:06 pm

Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>

Dear friends,

"If you could live your life all over again, what would you do
differently?" That's the question the devotional message below
asks. For me, more than anything else, knowing what I know
today, I'd endeavor to live for Christ each and every moment of
my life. That's what I try to do, but I fall short. I can only
do my very best each day, and when I do fall short, confess it
as sin, rely on the goodness of God, and choose to serve the
Lord with my life in every way - thoughts, words, and deeds.
And you?

Yours in Christ,
Brian

365 Guidelines for Daily Living - Ministry
Harold J. Sala

To Live your Life Again

"Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let
me know how fleeting is my life." Psalm 39:4

In his book Who Switched the Price Tags? Tony Campolo
tells about a survey in which people over age 95 were asked the
question, "If you could live your life all over again, what
would you do differently?"
Most of the responses fell into three categories. Most
people wished they had risked more. For them life had been too
safe, too calculated. They fell into a routine and were afraid
to break out of it - same job, same neighborhood, same
environment, day in and day out. They wonder what adventures
they missed because they were fearful of leaving security.
Others wished they had concentrated more on what was
really important. For them, life had been filled with details of
the routine. The good had become the enemy of the best. As
they grew older their schedule became more compressed, and they
look back and say to themselves, "Is this all there is to life?"
The third category of people expressed the wish they had
done something worthwhile which would have lived on long after
they died.
Was this the wish of a certain English missionary? She
had no family, and upon her death in a faraway country, natives
sold everything she possessed. When sod grew over her grave, it
was as if she had never existed. Well, not quite. You see, she
had invested herself in the lives of the people she served. She
taught them to read and write. She taught them the Word of God,
and when Donald Cole arrived where she had lived, he found a
solid legacy of faith in the lives of these people. She left
behind a testimony to her life, a living legacy in flesh and
blood.
"If you could live your life over again, what would you
do differently?"
I put this question to the late Oswald Sanders when he
was 85 years old.
The one-time attorney turned missionary statesman and Bible
college president said he would not do anything differently. He
had no regrets in having served the Lord. For him life had been
an adventure and he had invested his life well for the cause of
Jesus Christ.
How about you? If you could live your life over again,
what would you do differently? In some cases, what's done is
done. But in other cases, what you would do if you could do it
over again can yet be done. What's to keep you from making an
in-flight correction and beginning to move towards that goal?
Instead of regretting what you haven't done or weren't able to
do, take positive steps to live your life all over again -
starting now. It's possible, and until your frail body has been
deprived of live and breath, it's never too late to begin anew.

RESOURCE READING: Psalm 90

365 Guidelines for Daily Living (c) 1997 by Dr. Harold J. Sala:

Devotional from www.purposedrivenlife.com/

=====
--
Brian Masinick, mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: www.geocities.com/masinick/

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