Do something today

In this months Ensign (a magazine the LDS church puts out) there was an article by our prophet Pres. Thomas Monson. It is titled, May we so live. It is about how we can deal with death. I thought it was appropriate since Aaron just lost his mother, little did I know how it could help me with the days to come. There was one paragraph that really touched me.

"How fragile life, how certain death. We do not know when we will be required to leave this mortal existence. And so I ask, "What are we doing with today?" If we live only for tomorrow, we'll eventually have a lot of empty yesterdays. Have we been guilty of declaring, "I've been thinking about making some course corrections in my life. I plan to take the first step--tomorrow"? With such thinking, tomorrow is forever. Such tomorrows rarely come unless we do something about them today."

That is so me. I always say I will start things tomorrow, but tomorrow never seems to come. I have been meaning to make my personal prayer more meaningful, to read my scriptures each day and to not yell at my kids as much, to work harder at keeping the commandments, the list goes on. Now that my sister has cancer and may only have 2 years left, I have seen first hand how things can change in a moment. How you think you have so many "tomorrows" and then to find out you may only have a few. So starting TODAY, I have challenged myself to read the Book of Mormon by the time my daughter turns 1. I have 42 days. That is 12.5 pages a day. If your "tomorrows" never come, I challenge you to take a look at how fragile life is and make a point to change those parts of your life that you want to change.

While we were living in Boise, I remember one Sunday at church when a father got up and told how his son had recently returned from a deployment in Iraq. He said that he had fasted every Sunday until his son came home. I remember thinking to myself, I wonder if there will be a trail in my life so hard that would make me want to fast every Sunday. Well, I can now answer that with a yes. I have decide to fast each Sunday at least for the next 6 months while she is undergoing chemo. Maybe longer if she needs it. I know that I may not be perfect at it but it is the least I can do. (to fast is to go without food and drink voluntarily for a certain period of time. Fasting combined with sincere prayer can help you prepare yourself and others to receive God's blessings)

One final thought from Pres. Monson.
"May we live so that when that final summons is heard, we may have no serious regrets, no unfinished business, but will be able to say with the Apostle Paul, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."

To read the whole article go to www.lds.org