A Thousand Marbles

This story has an very powerful lesson - read it and let me know what you think...

The older I get, the more I enjoy Sunday mornings. Perhaps it’s the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it’s the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Sunday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the basement shack with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Sunday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it.
I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Sunday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older-sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind-he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whomever he was talking with something about “a thousand marbles.”

I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say. “Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you’re busy with your job. I’m sure they pay you well, but it’s a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work 60 or 70 hours a week to make ends meet. Too bad you missed your daughter’s dance recital.”
He continued, “Let me tell you something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities.” And that’s when he began to explain his theory of “a thousand marbles.”

“You see, I sat down and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about 75 years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on an average, folks live about 75 years. Now, I multiplied 75 times 52, and came up with 3900, which is the number of Sundays that the average person has in his entire lifetime.

“Now, stick with me, Tom. I’m getting to the important part. It took me until I was 55 years old to think about all this in any detail,” he went on, “and by that time I had lived through over 2800 Sundays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be 75, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy.

“So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble it had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them in a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear. Every Sunday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away.

“I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.

“Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure if I make it until next Sunday, then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.

“It was nice to meet you, Tom. I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again on the band. Good Morning!”

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off.

I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work in my basement that day; instead I went upstairs and woke up my wife.
“C’mon! I’m taking you and the kids to breakfast.”
“What brought this on?” she asked with a smile.
“Oh, nothing special. It’s just been a long time since we spent a Sunday together with the kids. Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we’re out? I need to buy some marbles.”

I think this is amazing! We have so much time on our hands. Let's try to take a message from this and use the time we have to do things that are productive and bring us closer to Hashem.

What things do you think you can do to make each moment last? How can you use your time in the right way?