CHIKA CHIKA LANG

Suppose, neck deep in a tough day, you resolve to give it a chance. You choose not to drink, work, or worry it away. Instead, you decide to give it a fair shake. You trust more. Stress less. Amplify gratitude. Mute complaints. Before long the day is done and surprisingly decent.

So decent, in fact, that you resolve to give the next day the same fighting chance. Despite hang-ups and bang-ups, giving the day a chance works! You do the same the next day, and the next. Days become a week. Weeks become months. Months become years of good days. I have this desire to help you have a good day every day. After all, doesn’t every day deserve a chance to be a good one?

Is time—a little or a lot—all that important? Consider the following:

To realize the value of one year,
ask a student who failed a grade.

To realize the value of one month,
ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.

To realize the value of one week,
ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realize the value of one day,
ask a daily-wage laborer with several children's mouths to feed.

To realize the value of one hour,
ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realize the value of one minute,
ask a person who missed the train.

To realize the value of one second,
ask a person who just avoided an accident.

To realize the value of one millisecond,
ask a person who won a silver medal
at the Olympics.

Jesus Christ told us to be careful how we handle our time, asking, "Are there not twelve hours in the day [the daylight portion of the 24-hour cycle]? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of the world. But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him" (John 11:9-10).