Seize your Summer

My husband got the the cutest gift in the mail today. It was a t-shirt with these words: “I’m 420 in dog years.” Do some division and the news is that my husband just turned the big 6-0!  

Most of you are probably thinking “Gee, he is is soooo old!” Well the truth is, no matter what age, life seems to go buy at a rapid pace. Even during COVID, when we all thought life was a snail’s pace, time seemed to tick away. So, here we are slowly moving past COVID, and we have an opportunity to make our days matter.

Ready, set, go! Summer has basically begun! Summer is filled with plenty of opportunities, but the big question is what we do with them? What would make this summer be your best summer EVER? Do you have a few summer goals you’d like to accomplish? What fitness goals do you have for yourself? What new restaurants do you want to try? What character traits do you wish to work on? How do you want to grow spiritually? How do you want to challenge your mind? What NEW things (things you’ve NEVER done before) can you try over the course of the summer? I’m creating a working list.

What would it look like to seize your summer? Like really make the most of every day you’ve been given? In Psalm 90:12 it says “Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.” Looking at this verse a bit more closely. John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible Commentary writes “Not merely to count them, how many they are, in an arithmetical way; there is no need of divine teachings for that… nor is this to be understood of calculating or reckoning of time to come- no man can count the number of days he has to live….But rather the meaning of the petition is, that God would teach us to number our days, as if the present one was the last….. But the sense is, that God would teach us seriously to meditate on, and consider the shortness of our days.”

Meditating on this verse always draws me back to a spirit of gratitude. Life is short! God wants me to number my days and when I do that, there is wisdom to be found. I love starting my day with reading God’s word and praying through items in my prayer journal.. That discipline truly helps me focus in on God in every aspect of my life. I give Him my day. My meetings. My activities. The people that I’m praying for. I’m very aware that I need God to help me thrive this very day. That helps me seize the day before me…savoring the many gifts I have, thus being so incredibly grateful.

Seize the summer. Savor this day.  Grab ahold of God. He truly wants to help you thrive not just someday, but today.

“So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those are who are wise.” Ephesians 5:15 (NLT)

Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain of the YMCA of Greater San Antonio.