86,400

If you found a bag of money laying on the ground and opened it up to discover $86,400, what would you do?  Before you rush to say you'd be a Good Samaritan and return the bag to the bank or the police station, I want to sweeten the deal a bit.  Let's say there's a tag on the bag that reads, "If you find this, it's YOURS to use however you want.  BUT you HAVE to use all the money TODAY."  Now, what would you do?  How would you spend your new-found wealth?  Remember, you have to spend it all in the next 24 hours...

You could be responsible...
*pay off student loans
*pay off your house
*pay off any other debt (cars, medical bills, credit cards, etc)
*put aside money for kids' college funds

You could be adventurous...
*take a trip around the world
*go to Disney World
*enjoy a Caribbean cruise

You could be spontaneous...
*buy a convertible
*do some landscaping or decorating
*buy a boat or jet skis or both
*change out your entire wardrobe

You could be generous...
*give to charities
*donate to families wanting to adopt children
*support ministries
*start your own non-for-profit to benefit a cause near and dear to your heart

You could do a little of everything.  You could do pretty much anything you wanted.  $86,400 is quite a bit of money.  A lot to spend in one day for sure.  The possibilities are only as limited as your imagination...

We can think of countless things to do with $86,400.  We can touch and feel the money.  We can sense its value fairly easily.  And a pile of bills that large might overwhelm us just a bit at first.

What if you were given a bag of something even more valuable than $86,400?  What would you do then?

What if I told you that you ARE given something even more valuable, every single day?  And just like my bag of money scenario you are required to use this valuable "thing" within 24 hours...

Did you realize that every day we are given 86,400 seconds?  We are pretty much required to use those 86,400 seconds in 24 hours.  Of course, each day we get a new set of 86,400 seconds to use.  However we want.

Sometimes we don't even realize we are using up our seconds.  Far too often we don't use them as wisely as we should.  At least I know I don't.

What if we started being more intentional about how we use our time?  What if we stopped to consider the incredible VALUE of that time?  What if we then focused our efforts and energies into making the most of the time we are given?  What if we truly did our best to make every second - all 86,400 of them - count?

How would your life change?  What would you do differently?

Yes, finding a bag of $86,400 and being required to spend the money in the next 24 hours would be quite the treat.  BUT, we are given something so much more valuable every single day.  We don't have to stumble upon this treasure or even go looking for it.  Every single morning we are given this incredible gift.  How we decide to use those 86,400 seconds is totally up to each of us.

And another good thing is that we get a new set of 86,400 seconds every day.  If we blew it yesterday, we get a fresh start today.  BUT, we aren't guaranteed we will get a tomorrow. So, let's make today count, all 86,400 seconds of it...