Today we are gonna talk about living each day like it’s a gift. 

So Last week Phil asked me a really deep question to get my mind going and thinking differently, but we didn’t talk about our answers until our date night on Thursday. This year we switched up our date nights because turns out a lot of the restaurants we wanted to try are all closed on Mondays. We’re still going strong and sticking to our weekly date night, it’s a nonnegotiable for us and I look forward to it every week. Because I know at least once I’ll be doing my hair and make up and getting all dressed. I love t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, and all the comfy clothes, but there is something so fun for me about getting dressed up to go out. I like getting dressed up with nowhere to go, but if I have somewhere to go, I want to be extra. As a stay-at-home mom, it really helps me feel refreshed and like an adult. 

Maybe you need to get a date night on the books, or a mom’s night out, or a coffee date by yourself with a good book. Whatever it is that fills your tank, you need to schedule that in a fight for it. Doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. My husband and I used to swap babysitting with our friends every Friday night. This was so great we didn’t have to pay for a babysitter, plus it added accountability because we were making sure that our friends were going on a date and they were making sure that we were going on a date. Because it’s really easy to just blow that off for later. Our kids loved it because every Friday they were playing with their friends and it was a win-win. What I will say about carving out time like that with your spouse or yourself, is that if you don’t make it a priority and fight for it, it won’t happen. There will always be things that will come up that will try to get in the way. 

And this leads me to our topic for today and back to the question that Phil asked me before our date night. He said Megan what things would you be doing differently if you knew your time was limited? If either one of us were gone, what something you would look back on and regret? and say, I wish I would have done more of this, or less or this? How would our days look different if were living like each day was our last? 

And at first, it made me really emotional because my mind didn’t even want to go there and think like that. But the truth is our time is limited, no one is guaranteed tomorrow. Each and every day is a gift. And what if we truly lived like that. 

I have watched friends go through difficult cancer battles, and others lose spouses way too early. And the recurring theme in all of their lives as I’ve watched them walk through this and have been there alongside them is that they live life differently. They have such a deep grasp of knowing that we aren’t guaranteed tomorrow and they don’t sweat the small stuff as easily, and they pack more life and experiences into a year than some people do in a lifetime. 

Ask yourself… 

What risks would you take? 

what arguments would you not have? 

What places would you travel to? 

How much more time would you spend putting your phone down and being fully present at the moment? 

How much more would you enjoy everyday life? 

What words would you speak over your loved ones? 

I think we’ve all heard the Tim McGraw song, Live like you dying. And in the chorus, he talks about 

“Loving deeper, speaking sweeter and all the risks and adventures that were taken” 

No one is guaranteed tomorrow. Every single day is a gift, it’s why it’s called the present! But do we actually live that way? 

As you can imagine our conversation at date night this week got deep real fast. We both came to the table with ideas and things that we would like to do differently. And then we started mapping how can we start implementing those ideas and making that our reality. 

I’m going to give you guys some examples of things that we talked about and want to improve on so you can see the way we process things. 

• One of the things that Phil shared is that he would want us to argue less. And it’s not even like we argue a lot but there are definitely things that we fight about or let me clarify there are a lot of times that I will snap at him and overreact and it just doesn’t need that kind of reaction. There is a better way that we could communicate. And we’ve come a long way with our communication but there’s still so much we can improve on. 
• Something else he shared is that he would look back and wished that we had cuddled more. It’s one of those things that I really like to do more than he does, but as he was thinking about it and realizing that if it’s something that I love so much and cherish, he would want to do more of that with me. 
• Something that I shared is that I want us to travel more as a family. I travel a lot or at least I did more in previous years, either by myself or with the kids. But not so much with Phil & everyone altogether… New experiences, new places, don’t even have to be traveling far but I feel so alive when I’m traveling and seeing new things, staying in different hotels or air bnb’s. And so we decided that every 6 weeks we want to plan a little mini trip, even if it’s in Tennessee but where the 5 of us get away, have a change of scenery, and experience new things together. 
• Something else that I shared that I would regret looking back on is how much time I wasted on my phone. Now I run a million-dollar business from my phone, which can provide us with a lot of amazing opportunities and lifestyle changes that I love, so I’m not talking about when I’m efficiently working. I’m talking about when I’m not being efficient and I’m half paying attention to my kids and not really doing anything productive on my phone. When my kids want to show me something I want to put my phone down more and fully connect with them. Make eye contact and show them I see you, I hear you, you matter. There are so many times that we miss little moments because we’re buried in our phones or we’re really distracted. I want to soak it all in, the little laughs, the little facial expressions that I’d miss bc my head my down or my mind was somewhere else. And then for Phil and I, we have gotten back into some bad habit at night where we’ll both climb into bed and be on our phones. And I told him I would look back and regret all the conversations we missed out on at night before we fell asleep bc we were too distracted. So to help improve this we set a time where we both have to unplug for the day and put our phones down. We started at 10 pm because that’s usually when we’re getting into bed. And after a few weeks of that, we’ll start bumping the time up earlier. But what happens is we start with these crazy goals of like no phones after 8 o’clock or ya know we try to jump full throttle into things and then we can never stick with it. So part of making improvements and changing your life, and changing your habits and your mindset is just setting really small goals that you can do on repeat and actually accomplish and then you can add on to that and make it bigger and bigger.  Now when it’s the end of the month for my business or people are going for promotions or things like that there will be exceptions but we want to norm for us to be connecting at night before we fall asleep. And we fall asleep faster that way too. 

It’s constantly being aware of your habits, because it’s so easy to slip back into old habits, like being on the phone before bedtime. This personal growth journey is all about awareness so that you can then make the changes. 

Something a lot of people don’t know about mine and Phil’s story is that Phil got really sick right after we got married. I joke and say we had a good 3 weeks of being newlyweds and then it kind of all came crashing in. I got a call that he was rushed to the Emergency room, and little did I know that we would spend most of that first year of marriage in and out of the ER. It was awful. But during that time we learned to savor the moments we had together and we really limit the things we fought about. I honestly thought he was dying and I think he did too. I remember this one night I curled up next to him and actually slept in the tiny hospital bed with him. It was a really difficult time, but it also gave a different perspective that most people don’t experience when they first get married. He’s so much healthier now that I forget what that time was like, and I forget how differently we lived because we knew we weren’t guaranteed tomorrow. 

I want to leave you with this… 

Are you living like tomorrow is guaranteed? Or are you living as if your time is limited? All we ever have are the moments that we are in right now. 

Would whatever you’re doing around the house be more important than pausing to play or reach a book to your child? 

Would you savor each moment differently and really enjoy your days more? 

Would you be braver and take more risks?

Would the fights you’re having be worth it?? 

When we take tomorrow for granted we tend to fight against the current blessings that we have, but when we live like today is a gift, we will fight FOR our current blessings. 

So this week I want you to evaluate some things in your life, and if there’s something that you feel like you would regret doing or regret not doing, make a note of that and start to change. 

Live every day like the gift that it is! And you will find so much more joy when you savor the blessings that you already have!