A thirty-six-year-old mother was discovered to be in the advanced stages of terminal cancer.
One doctor advised her to spend her remaining days enjoying herself on a beach in Acapulco. A second physician offered her the hope of living two to four years with the grueling side effects of chemotherapy and radiation treatment. The young mother wrote these words to her three small children:
“I’ve chosen to try to survive for you. This has some horrible costs, including pain, loss of my good humor, and moods I won’t be able to control.
“But I must try this, if only on the outside chance that I might live one minute longer. And that minute could be the one you might need me when no one else will do.
“For this I intend to struggle, tooth and nail, so help me God.”
Throughout most of my life I have taken the precious years, months, days, minutes and seconds for granted. I have lived as if I had all the time in the world.
At the age of 78 and after going to the funerals of family members and friends on a regular basis, I now realize what that young mother was saying to her children and to me.
Just one minute of my life is so important. As with the young mother, I must decide what to do with that precious minute I have been given.
Will YOU in YOUR life get to the point where YOU will want to live “just one minute more?”
THE PRESENCE OF GOD WILL NOT ALWAYS FIX YOUR PROBLEMS, BUT IT WILL CLARIFY YOUR PERSPECTIVE!
