If life is a learning process there are some days the lessons are harder and come faster then you could expect. We had one of those times last week. One of the lessons that we should learn early but usually only get after multiple review sessions is that life is fragile, short and should be lived to its fullest today. The idea that tomorrow is not promised to us is not an abstract idea. It is as real as your own breath.

While learning lessons is often painful we can enjoy the changes that they can bring. Because life is short and we need to live it to its ultimate capacity now all sorts of doors open up to us. Here are just a few commitments I want to make to ensure I don’t miss out on anything.

I want to have more two hour candle light dinners with my wife. In fact this needs to be a weekly occurrence.

I never want to miss the sun coming up on the bay if I can help it. I can’t be there every day but when I can I want to be early.

I will write more letters to my kids and put on paper how proud I am of them and what a blessing they have been in my life.

I will make sure everyday has its share of laughter and smiles because even the worst of times can provide them if we just look.

I will think more highly of everyone in this world simply because God made them. If God can love me who can I say is outside his love?

I want to plan great things. Trips with my wife, family and friends. Parties that last to the wee hours of the morning. Experiences that sound outrageous and just might be.

I want to dance with my wife. There’s something about a couple gliding across a dance floor that just speaks about life. If dancing isn’t a metaphor for marriage I don’t know what is.

The bottom line is I want to laugh more, dance more, cry more, love more and just not miss a thing. Not because this world is all there is but because this world belongs to a God who has provided all this for us. Its fallen, broken, bent, sin sick and twisted but still has a great deal of “God” in it and I for one refuse to miss a single second of it.