Time is a commodity that can never be bought, and yet is easily spent; however, are the things we spend it on worth the investment?

After reading the church newsletter and examining my calendar, that was a question I posed to myself.

These days, parents struggle to squeeze everything in – from school to dance, sports to church – it’s hard to make sure there’s time for simple things.

The newsletter talked about how easy it is to become disassociated from things, namely a child’s life because we’re so involved in “doing.”

Earlier in the morning, I’d read a piece by nationally syndicated columnist Lisa Earl McLeod, who discussed, “What are the 10 best days of your life?”

She said the first few answers are the easy ones – marriages, births, major life milestones – but after that, it gets tricky.

She said most of the time, we don’t even realize that we’re experiencing one of our best days while we’re having it. It’s only when we look back that we realize how happy we were, she said.

Both pieces were absolutely correct.

Here it is October. In three short months, 2012 will be over, and we will start 2013. Twelve months later it will be 2014, and the cycle continues.

Time never stands still.

I want to make sure that when I look back on my life, I can see the proof that I made my time on Earth count.

I’m working hard to fulfill that on a parental front, as shown by my nightly prayer that my children grow up to be healthy, happy and safe. Notice I didn’t say “successful,” because I think if they can achieve those three things, success has been achieved.

I work very hard to accomplish that goal on a professional front. I like to think that every time I write a story about a special benefit for a sick person, I made a difference in their life. On the flip side of that, I know that every time I write a story about someone going to jail, I made a difference in their life – namely fanning the flame of hot gossip, but it can’t all be positive, right?

I know that I don’t always get it right on all fronts, either, but at least I try.

I read this passage by Denis Waitely the other day, and it stuck with me.

“Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can’t buy more hours. Scientists can’t invent new minutes. And you can’t save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you’ve wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow.”

So let’s make today count.