Kristi Pennington

When Calls the Heart, now in its 10^th season, is one of my favorite TV drama series. This season a hidden treasure is discovered in the small rural town of Hope Valley.  This treasure becomes a delightful source of pleasure for the community, until strangers and tourists get wind of it. It quickly becomes a tourist destination where they find relaxation and refreshment.  Interestingly the discovery is made by three town’s children. The treasure – a beautiful, serene hot springs.

Coincidentally, one of the lessons that their teacher, Elizabeth, was teaching at the time of discovery included the Latin phrase, carpe diem, “seize the day”. The three children were ecstatic! To them “seize the day” meant obvious permission to visit the Hot Springs every day, even three times a day. They were definitely seizing the day!

Since watching that episode I’ve been pondering the question: How can we live a Seize the Day life? Would Jesus wants us to live this way? Yes! Jesus wants us to live life in its fullness. Therefore we do need to make good use of our minutes, hours, and days. Scripture teaches that we should be wise in how we live, making choices every day that can deepen our personal life in God and enrich the lives of others. Here are some daily ways to experience life in its full:

• Seek God in prayer early in the day, in a time of silence and solitude asking Him to give wisdom for ordering the moments of our day – aligning our will with his will.   Ask God if there’s something on your calendar that should be left off? He will let you know.
•  Do something playful! God wants us to celebrate life. Here are some ideas of play: listen to music, enjoy a hobby you love, learn a new hobby, have coffee with a friend, play a game, play with children or grandchildren. There’s so much we can learn about play from children.  How about you? How do you bring play into your life?
• Love others well, especially family and friends. What can you do that shows these special people you love them? It doesn’t have to be something big. It could be a hug, a smile, an affirming text, verbalizing words of telling them thank you for something they’ve done, or telling them you love them.
  It is often said, “No one gets to the end of their life regretting not spending more time at the office, but they often regret not investing more time and life with family and friends, especially their kids.”
• Throughout the day look for things to be thankful for and speak a prayer of thanksgiving to God.
• Become more self-aware of things in life that you can’t control and in prayer turn them over to God. I find I often have to practice this frequently.  
• Make a list of activities that can help pull you out of the dumps when you’re feeling low. Turn to that “play list” and choose something that helps you get up and moving. It seems rather silly, but for me, running the vacuum cleaner helps.
• Get outdoors, even if it’s for a short period of time. Fresh air and enjoying nature is good for the soul.
• If exhausted, take a nap if there’s an opportunity.
• Spend time with life-giving friends. I love this blessing from For One Who is Exhausted by John O’Donohue
  Be excessively gentle with yourself.
  Stay clear of those vexed in spirit.
  Learn to linger around someone of ease
  Who feels they have all the time in the world.  

God desires for us to live life in a way that brings fullness and joy. Finding time for these kinds of seizing the day moments will bring fullness and richness to life.  How many of these are in your daily rhythm? What would you add?