Moments...

Other than the Bible, I fully believe that Dove Promise wrappers contain incredible nuggets of wisdom to help us along in day to day issues.  That belief always inspires me to gorge myself on Dove Promises whenever I have the opportunity.  After all, I DO want to glean as much wisdom from their shiny little wrappers as I can.  ha ha  On that note, I opened up a Dove Promise the other day and discovered the following bit of wisdom:

"Enjoy the Moment"

What a truth!  I tucked the truth away in my mind and went about my busy day.  Days passed...and last Saturday I was once again reminded of this life-changing truth.

     We had just enjoyed a fantastic piano recital featuring many of Gordon and Kristina Alley's piano students.  Folks from various churches in the Denver area came and we ended up with about 120 in attendance.  Each student did a phenomenal job.  As beautiful, God-honoring music resounded throughout the auditorium, I thought, "I'm SO glad I got the opportunity to be a part of this night."  After the recital, we all gathered in the Fellowship Hall for some delicious food and fellowship.  I helped serve drinks for a bit and then decided to grab some food.  When I went back into the kitchen, I noticed a young lady from our church named Shay sitting in the back eating.  I sat down with her and chatted.  A few minutes passed and Shay went to go say "goodbye" to some people.  As she was leaving, Gordon and Rachel Alley's little girl, Autumn, came and sat down next to me.  Autumn is adorable and absolutely irresistable.  She is most certainly a difficult little lady to ignore.  I turned to her and started talking.  She told me about her day and...I listened.  I teased her a bit and snatched a couple of her chips.  She laughed and said, "Do it again."  And so, I snatched a few more chips.  We laughed.  I got up and refilled her chip bowl.  Then, she decided she wanted to tell me all about the "Almond radio" that her family went to see...(in Autumn language that translates to:  "The Other Rodeo").  As she started telling her story, I noticed some folks out in the eating area that I wanted to  see before they had to leave.  Something within me hesitated for a split second..."Enjoy the Moment"...was the thought that came to mind.  I looked over at my little 3 year old friend.  She was excitedly telling me about her fun time at the rodeo...and my distracted mind was missing it.  The Holy Spirit sweetly scolded me, "Erica, THIS is the moment.  Enjoy THIS moment.  This moment will never happen again.  Don't miss it."  I focused back in on Autumn's story.  For that moment, Autumn became the most important person in the entire world and her story the most captivating story that I had ever heard.  We had a blast talking back and forth about the rodeo and munching on potato chips.  For those moments, we were seemingly the only two folks in the entire Fellowship Hall.  After a while, Autumn skipped off to go play with some of the other children.  I watched her go and thought, "Twenty years from now, that little lady will probably not remember our potato chip-munching rodeo talk in the Fellowship Hall kitchen, but I WILL remember and will cherish this moment forever."

     God used that sweet little girl to remind me how important...how fleeting these moments are.  I remembered the few sweet moments I was able to spend with Shay that night...the wonderful moments I spent playing a piano duet with my friend, Kaylee (a high school Senior who will be going off to Bible college this fall...THOSE were moments that most certainly could never be reclaimed) and the precious moments that I had spent going soul-winning with my Pastor's wife that morning.  Moments.  How many moments in my life had I lived on auto-pilot?  Or  how many moments had I just muddled through...distractedly worried about what I was going to be doing the next day?

"For what is your life?  It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away..."

Life...a vanishing vapour...a series of fleeting moments.

Take heed to the Dove...

"Enjoy the Moment"