The Thomasville Rotary Club offers high school and community college students an opportunity to shadow a professional for a day. While I deal with cooperative education and internships at East Davidson, I had never heard of this program until this year. When the Rotary Club contacted me about getting some East students involved, I found a few candidates and signed them up.

            The students got the opportunity to spend the morning with a professional in a field of interest to them. The employer talked with the students about everyday professional life and gave the students a tour of their company. Then Rotary members invited the students to attend a Rotary club luncheon. The teachers from each of the participating schools who helped coordinate the student participation were also invited to the luncheon.

            The food was great, and getting the chance to meet local professionals was an added bonus. I also enjoyed seeing a number of business sponsors that I have worked with over the years. That in and of itself would have made for a very successful day, but there was a speaker at the luncheon who offered the students and all those present a few thoughts on how to live life.

            I was so glad that the speaker did not deliver your typical inspirational or humorous speech, but instead focused his comments on the honored guests: the students. Two of the main points he made in his speech related to making good choices and using the gift of time to our best advantage. His comments were filled with nuggets of wisdom.

            Every day we have to make choices. Good and evil battle for our attention. The news seems to be filled every day with people who make bad choices. While all of us have made bad choices in our lives, it doesn’t mean that we can’t strive to live our lives in such a way that we bring honor and integrity to ourselves, families, our employers, communities, and churches. We choose how we act and react to every situation we face in life. There are some circumstances in life we can’t control, but we can choose how we will move forward.

            One choice is how we use our time. We are all given the same amount of time each day, how we use or waste that precious gift will impact the outcomes of our lives. Will we use time to better ourselves and those around us? Time slips by so quickly, do we want to look back with regrets? The speaker finished with a poem that my former principal quoted almost every year at graduation, “The Dash,” by Linda Ellis.

            Every tombstone contains two dates, our birth and our passing. In between those two dates is a small dash which represents our lives. The beautiful poem challenges us to live that little dash in such a positive way that people will remember the impact we had on this world during our lives.

            It is so important that we understand the shortness of life. We will have to stand before the throne of God and answer for every minute. Not only will we have to account for our time but our choices in the midst of time. God will hold us accountable if we wasted our lives; the parable of the talents makes that very clear. God expects us to have a positive impact on the world around us, to give our very best in every opportunity.

            We all have much to offer our churches, communities, and the world around us. God needs you to be willing and available to serve. We can’t do everything, but we can all do something. I am not a missionary, but I can help support those who are. I am a teacher in high school with the high calling to impact the next generation. You might be a dentist, real estate agent, firefighter, or the next speaker at the Rotary Club…do that job to the best of your ability to bring honor to both your profession and to God. You are God’s representative wherever you go.

     I want to encourage you to consider carefully your choices in what little time you have left here on earth. Choose not to complain, but to make a positive difference. Live a godly life and let your light shine before all men. Look for the opportunities to serve and be a witness in your community. Find your unique way that you can impact the next generation. Pass the torch of our faith to those who will follow. I believe that we can change our world by impacting one life at time.

Contact Doug at doug@dougcreamer.com