This weekend my family and I went to my grandmother's house at the lake. While my cousin, my sister, and I were downstairs in the basement, we found a lot of old photo books that my grandmother has kept over the years. There were hundreds upon hundreds of pictures in there that ranged from the year of 1960 to the year of 2004.
As I started looking at these pictures, I had so many thoughts and emotions run through my head. I was sitting here looking at pictures of me when I was a baby, pictures from when my father was a baby, and pictures when my grandmother was just a teenager. Suddenly, it quickly came to me about how fast life goes by. I looked at the pictures of my grandmother graduating and realized that I am about to graduate in just a few short months. This made me realize that one day I will have grandchildren that will be looking at the photos of me graduating and saying how long ago it was, just as I did this weekend. I also looked at pictures of all of my old family at Christmas time together and in each of these pictures, they were laughing and having a wonderful time together, just enjoying each other's company. Each of these moments is one of the most precious things in life and we take it for granted too much lately. I am especially guilty of taking advantage of certain times.
All of these photos made my heart full, but it also really just opened up my eyes to more serious things. There were photos of my grandfather who passed away when I was just a baby and memories of him and his family with my father and my aunt. One day the photos of me and my family will be in a memory book where my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren and my great-great grandchildren will be looking at them and I might be long gone, but it is crazy to think of how these memories can affect someone long down the road, just as it did me. It made me realize that my life is not just going to be gone once I am long gone. What I do in life is not just going to matter now, but for many years to come. The moments that you enjoy in life and how you live your life will go on from centuries from now. I saw how my family spent time together at the house, how my grandmother was there when I was born and at all my parties. I look at all of our vacations together and I see us bonding together. It came to my mind that these soon memories that I am living in now will show my grandchildren how I lived my life. They will see what I chose to do with my life in the time that the Lord gives me. Pictures really can speak a thousand words and I never understood that quote to its fullest extent, until today.
So I encourage you to take pictures. Take pictures even if your hair is a mess and you have no make-up on, because I can promise you that in 60 years from now your grandchildren and great-grandchildren that will be looking at these photos that will not be looking at how your hair or your makeup looked, but they will be looking at the love that was in the photos and they will be looking at your life just as I looked at my grandmother's life today and the joy that she had.
I can only hope that when my grandchildren look at these photos that it will bring into their minds what got brought into mine today. I hope it will bring reminders to live in the moment and live with love. I pray it will encourage them to not just live a life on social media and materialistic things. To not live on what the little things the world has to offer. Live with your family in the love that you share and never take your family for granted, because these are the people that God has put in your life for a reason and they are there to love you and comfort you.
So, now I pray that my life will make my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren proud. That one day they will be sitting with my sisters daughters looking at these photos and smiling and crying just as I did, reminiscing on life and how important it is to not just exist but to actually live. Live BEYOND your limits, live BEYOND your fears,, live BEYOND the small things, and always go BEYOND the expectations. Live your life to the fullest and don't let a moment go by that could one day change your grandchild's perspective on life,
XOXO,
Carley
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