“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Psalm 90:12 NKJV

Motivational speaker Denis Waitley describes an experience that marked his life forever. He was trying to catch a flight for a speaking commitment and was running through the airport terminal. He reached the gate just as the agent closed the door. Denis explained his dilemma, but the agent didn’t reopen the door. That’s when his annoyance turned into anger. He stomped out of the boarding area and returned to the ticket counter to lodge a complaint and reschedule his flight. His anger increased as he waited for over twenty minutes in a line that hardly moved. Right before his turn at the ticket counter, an announcement over the intercom changed his life, because he realized that by missing that flight, his life had been saved. The flight he missed, Flight 191 from Chicago to Los Angeles, had crashed on takeoff with no survivors. Denis never lodged his complaint. He also never returned his invalidated ticket for Flight 191. He brought it home and tacked it on a bulletin board in his office. In the aftermath of that experience, anytime he felt irritated or upset, all he had to do was look at that ticket from Flight 191. It was an unforgettable reminder that life is a gift that should not be undervalued. The psalmist wrote, “The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years…it is soon cut off, and we fly away…So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (vv. 10, 12 NKJV).

The Word for You Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from Celebration Enterprises, Inc. Copyright © 2024