I hit the delete button this morning!
This man was a good man! I met him a long time ago through a friend and have kept his contact information on my phone. I can even remember in the last few years reaching out to him for networking purposes. I can still see his face, hear him speak; even with a slight accent that he had.
Fast forward to today. For some reason, I have been reflecting on life much, much more; especially since I've increased in years on this earth (currently 50). As I reminisce about life, just this morning I started to think about my Sunday school teachers when I attended Mariemont Church; Gil Hopkins, Mrs. Norris and Hank Kleinfeldt. I had some great memories of them all when they served us young kids and taught us about the Bible and God! I am so appreciative of them as well as others who have encouraged me, taught me, went to bat for me and overall, loved me through all of my years! I'm thankful for the many relationships that were a part of my life.
Through the many experiences I've encountered, both good and bad, I've learned some big lessons in life. I think most of us have learned lessons in life, but I have this desire to share mine as well as others too. I don't want to "beat a dead horse," like my Mom used to tell me, but hitting one of my "rock bottoms" in life was probably a big reason why I have the desire to share stories and lessons of life! It's hard to appreciate something until you don't have it and through my experiences, I lost many of those things, including contentment for my life.
It took 26 years to finally wake up, open my eyes and heart to the one who put breath in my lungs, but I finally did! If you're reading this, I'm sure that many of you can relate to a time (a day, week, months or even years) when you were on a path that didn't satisfy, only to have a humbling experience take place, before you changed for the better. Yeah, it stinks, but a humbling usually precedes any of our changes!
Do you want to go through life, living and learning, working hard, vacations, eating out, the good and the bad, etc etc, all while keeping the details of these things to maybe just yourself or your family? Or, do you want to go through life the best you can, at the same time be able to impact others by encouraging them with a story about how your eyes were finally opened and when you chose the better path? I think we're put on this earth to do more than just give glory to our Creator, but also to connect, serve, love and encourage others. If this is your heart, I'm asking if you'd like to either share your story or nominate (encourage) a person you know to be a part of an organization that loves to share stories of eye opening experiences that resulted in changes for the better, both big and small! No one should feel as though they're on an island by themselves and your story encourages others.
An old contact of mine breathed his last breath in the last few weeks due to Covid. I thought about how I had never asked him to share his story, but I knew he had one like most of us do! Don't let the DELETE button be used like I did for Tom this morning before you get a chance to write your story that can impact others even after your last breath!
https://checkyourgame.com/share-a-story/