24 Hours

       If you knew you had only 24 hours left to live, hypothetically, what would you do with those 24 hours? Would you spend all the time you could with friends and family? Would you say goodbye to those you love? Would you do the last few items left on your bucket list, just for good measure? Or maybe you just might spend the day doing everything you love, or perhaps reflecting on the life you lived, or going back to your hometown that held so many memories. Now, what would you do if you knew that someone you loved and cared about was going to die in 24 hours? What would you do then? Leave them be or spend every minute that you can with them? Do everything they love to do, just so they can do it one last time? This last month I came to realize that I had never really asked myself these questions until someone I cared about died. And when that did happen, I was left wondering why. I was left to think about everything I could've said and should've done but never got the chance to. And with that I started asking myself what I would do if I had 24 more hours to spend with this person before she died. And I actually did make a list of everything I would've done. In the grieving process I have come to find that it's easy to get lost in regret. You think of all the things you didn't do or say, and you regret having not done or said those things, and it's hard to wrap your mind around the fact that they're gone, and you'll never be able to do or say those things.
       Recently the Lord has been teaching me that it's okay to regret some things, but we shouldn't dwell on that regret, and that time is fragile and precious, and that since we never know when our last 24 hours will be, we should cherish every hour as if we only had 24 left. We don't spend a lot of time thinking about how we might die, or when we might die, so it's understandable that we don't always spend our time the way we should. But while 24 hours seems like a long time, it can go by quick, and often times we don't stop to reflect on how we spend the 24 hours we have in a day. And while there's nothing wrong with that, I think it's a shame that we don't. I don't know about you, but if I were to have been given 24 hours of warning before a friend died, I would've watched the sunrise and the sunset with her, and I would've told her the God loves her, and wants nothing more than for her to be in Heaven with Him. Because believe it or not, 24 hours isn't long. And I would want nothing more than for the person I care about to be at peace and enjoy every last minute of it..

Until Next Time,
              -Alayna