There is no better time than now to live your best life

It was a beautiful sun-lit morning, as I strolled along the beach. I glanced out at the ocean’s blue waters, and I listened to the voice of seagulls greeting the new day.

It was a beautiful sunlit morning, as I strolled along the beach. I glanced out at the ocean’s blue waters, and I listened to the voice of seagulls greeting the new day. Step by step, I walked. And as I looked down below at the sand at my feet, I thought about a story that a reader had sent to me about a philosophy teacher.

One day, when the class began, the teacher told her students she was going to teach them an important life lesson. The class curiously waited. Soon, the teacher disappeared into her supply closet for a moment. When she returned, she was carrying a box full of items.

With her eyes twinkling, the teacher put the box on her desk. Next, she reached into the box and took out a large, see-through empty jar. After that, one by one, she took out some large stones. She put the stones into the jar and asked her students, “Do you think this jar is full?”

The student’s nodded. As a matter of fact, they all confirmed that the jar was full.

Then, the teacher picked up a bag of small pebbles from the box, and she poured the pebbles into the jar. The pebbles filled the open areas between the large stones. Once again, the teacher questioned the class. “Is the jar full?”

Uneasily, they all agreed that the jar was full. But perplexed, every few minutes the students glanced at the wall clock wondering, “What is this lesson?”

Lastly, the teacher took a bucket of sand from out of the box. She poured the sand into the jar slowly. And the students watched as the sand filled all the empty spaces in the glass jar.

The teacher’s mouth stretched with a wide smile. “Class,” the teacher declared. Her voice was cheery. “I want you to see that this jar can be similar to your life – the stones are the most important things; your values, your health, your faith, spiritual life, your family, close friends, and your heart’s desires.”

She took a deep breath and continued, “The peb- bles are other things that matter – your career, your home and hobbies, for example.”

The class remained silent. “But the sand represents the small stuff,” the teacher uttered. “So if you put the sand into the jar first, there would be no room left for the pebbles and large stones.”

The moral of this story is to pay the most attention to the things that matter most. With the busyness of life, we need to prioritize our time. We must not let the less important things crowd out what’s most important.

Today, take a good, long look at your life and take the time right now to invest in discovering and pursuing your true life’s purpose. Where are you now, and where you are heading?

Assess your priorities. What means the most to you?

Those things should be your top priorities. The rest is just… sand.

Recently, while shopping at a department store, I saw a wooden sign with these words: “What you are is God’s gift to you; what you do with yourself is your gift to God.”