Thursday; January 26

I never really knew much about Aeneas Williams – but a recent show about him made me wish I had paid more attention to him.. Williams may be one of the lesser known members of the NFL Hall of Fame, but he is moving up on my list of players I respect. Again, about all I know about him comes from what the people at NFL Films showed me, but I was intrigued by what I saw. I was especially captivated by one of his signature quotes, “Begin with the end in mind and die empty.” Interestingly, I don’t think he was talking about a financial philosophy. He wasn’t advocating that the “haves” should go out and spend all their wealth on themselves. Rather, his point seems to be to exhaust all the opportunities and talents we have before we leave this earth. We all know that we can’t take our stuff with us to the grave and the same should be said about the blessings and talents we have. No good advice, no words of wisdom, no acts of kindness can be willed to the next generation, so we might as well take advantage of every opportunity we have to use them! Which is better, laying on our death beds bored with an unfulfilled life or dying with a smile on our faces knowing that we have been exhausted by the good deeds we have done.

What do you have left inside you? How can you begin, today, to invest yourself into the lives of others? How can you see and seize the next opportunity in front of you? When we live with a purpose, we’ll be more apt to die with satisfaction in our hearts.

Think About It!

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