Time

So today, at 9:26 a.m., I turned seventeen. Seventeen! I sat in my desk at school today, making sure to glance at the clock at 9:26. I couldn't believe that I was turning 17. March 15th already? I can remember March 1st as if it were yesterday! And then I remembered a saying that my Aunt Jean used to say, which is, "The days are long, honey, but the years are short." It's so true! Every day seems like another hill to climb, but then you blink and seventeen years of your life have passed! But then I remember that each day is a gift. I think that many times I look at life as if, oh no! I only have roughly fifty years of my life left! Where has the time gone? But I have a heavenly father that has promised me that I am guaranteed an eternity of life with him. So I am seventeen today, in a few years I'll be twenty, then thirty-one, Lord willing, and on and on and on. But it's not so much about how long I live. I'll live forever praising God in a home he has provided for me in heaven. It's more like what I do while I'm living on earth that matters. In only three days, Jesus Christ took all of the sins of the world upon his shoulders and rose again from the dead after being condemned to death for sins he never committed. In that moment, the doors of mercy and grace and salvation opened. If Jesus can change the world in only three days, I can devote my next seventeen years to doing his will, not lamenting the time lost, but praising God for the time given.