This is the Time

A tragedy occurred last night near the home I grew up in, and my heart is aching. A set of train tracks and not enough caution = a horrible, heart-wrenching crisis for two families of 3 teenage girls and many other people who know them. The girls were walking on the tracks, taking pictures. They heard one train coming and tried to get out of the way, but another train came the other direction at that time and they were caught. Two were killed, the other is fighting for her life.

A 15-year-old girl who was killed in this accident was my mom's next-door neighbor for most of the girl's life. She would visit my mom as she was gardening outside and she would give her hugs at church.

My Young Women lesson today was about avoiding crisis living, so I have been thinking a lot about the time we are given and what we do with it. Do we use it wisely, or do we frivolously waste hours and hours of it in unimportant, mind-numbing activities? How do our everyday choices effect what our lives become month by month and year by year? Once time is spent, it cannot be recovered. But we can always decide to change and begin now to figure out what is really important to us and live our lives accordingly. We have a finite amount of time. What strikes me with this tragedy of girls dying so young is that we do not know how much time we have. We cannot assume we have years to figure things out or make things right with loved ones and the Lord. NOW is the time to prepare to meet God and make wise choices about the use of our time.

This is the news story that ran last night:
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=17687887&title=two-dead-one-injured-by-train-in-spanish-fork-canyon

And this is also a reminder to all of us to stay off train tracks!