We all know that life is short, but how often do we apply that to our way of living? This morning, while going about my normal morning routine, the thought crossed my mind, “What would I do differently if I knew I only had six months to live?”

Would I still wake up early to carry the kids to school and hit the gym before work? Would I watch every calorie I ate and put in the extra hours at the office? What would you do differently? What matters the most to you?

These questions were haunting in my mind. It seemed like such a heavy subject at 7 a.m. on a random morning, but it is apparent that the Lord wanted me to ponder on these things.

Thoughts like that make you shovel through everything in your life and toss out the unimportant time fillers and surface the parts that should be important.

In my life, nothing should be more important than my relationship with Christ. I am a Christian and that relationship should be the top order of business in everything I do. Although I fail miserably at making that happen, this morning it was thrown in my face that everything I do will pass away except what I do for His kingdom. All of the labor and time that you put into anything will be wasted if not done for the right reason.

After the thoughts of my spiritual life, came the thoughts of my personal life. Who is important to you? Who matters the most? What relationships are worth cultivating and what relationships would be better to end? If you have read any of my columns, then you know that family is a big deal to me. Friends will come and go but your family members are the ones who will be standing by you when it all comes down. Whether you love your family or if you are convinced that God mixed you up at birth, you’re stuck with your relatives, so you might as well get use to it.

People would be much happier if they just accepted their family for who they were and embraced the differences that abound in their family tree. You didn’t get to choose your relatives, they were chosen for you, so accept what you have been given and find the good in them. It does no good for you to find the fault in them all the time. Family relationships are always worth working on.

When the spiritual and family issues were addressed there was an issue of work that came up. Now we don’t get to choose our family but we do get to choose our co-workers. If you absolutely can’t function in your place of employment, branch out and seek new avenues that fit you and your personality better. I couldn’t find a better job for myself than the one I’m currently in. The employees all get along and we feed off of each other throughout the day. You let someone come in with a bad attitude in the mornings and I guarantee that by the time they leave, they’ll be singing a different song. We are like family here and that is so important to life. If you feel like you have been fighting a losing battle for eight hours of every day, then it will take a hard toll on you very quickly.

So as we recap, love God, love your family and love your job. Live your life like today is your last day, it will be one day and you’ll be glad that you did.