Every Moment Counts

I went for a long fall motorcycle ride this past weekend. The original plan was to ride a route that would take me to see some of the places my great, great grandfather John Kinna had an influence on. I visited Virginia City where he had a hardware store with a partner named John Nye. The vigilantes used to meet in the back of that store to discuss how to bring law and order to this wild frontier. Then I went on to Elkhorn where John Kinna had invested heavily in the mine there and increased his fortune.

I enjoyed seeing some of the past of my ancestor but what stuck me as I visited these towns was found in the cemeteries. Life was not easy in those days, there was no law and the thrill of the gold rush brought a wide spectrum of humanity from hardy adventurers to family men desperate for a way to support their families to the opportunistic outlaws looking for easy pickings. As I looked at the gravestones and read what was engraved it was easy to see that life was very precious to these people – every day counted and every day was included on the gravestone. The faith of these people and the sorrow at their loss is carved in the stones. Some of these lives were very short but still every day counted – there were accidents and diseases and just plain hardship that caused some of these lives to be cut short and there was violence and even the struggle for law and order brought more deaths.

In this day we live in we tend to avoid talking about God’s place in our lives – we live at such a fast pace that we rarely take the time to slow down and even consider that God does have an interest in our lives and even a plan for our lives if we will only give Him a chance to reveal Himself to us.

I’d like to encourage you to take some time to just be still – watch a sunset, look at the moon reflecting on the water, or watch the stars march across the sky – and think about how precious every moment we have can be. God is just waiting to reveal His love to us if we will just slow down and listen.

Isaiah 45:3 - " I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hidden wealth of secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name."

Jeremiah 1:5 - " Before I formed you in the womb I knew and approved of you as My chosen instrument, and before you were born I separated and set you apart, consecrating you;" (Amplified Version)

Psalms 139:13-14;16-18 - "For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. . . . Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were written the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God; How vast the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand, When I am awake, I am still with You."

ANNIE OPIE
DIED
Jan. 21, 1898
AE. 1 Yr 3 M's 16 D's
Thy hands are clasped upon thy breast. We have kissed thy lovely brow. And in our aching hearts we know. We have no Darling now.

IN
LOVING MEMORY
OF
ANNE BOWDEN,
2nd DAUGHTER
OF
THOMAS H.
AND
ANNE BARKER,
BORN MAY 1, 1893
DIED JUNE 30, 1898
AGED 5 YEARS AND 2 MONTHS

Like the dove to the arc thou hast flown to thy rest, from the wild sea of strife, to the home of the blest, sleep on in thy beauty thou sweet angel child, by sorrow unblighted by sin undefiled

HERE RESTS THE SWEETEST BUDS OF HOPE.

BEATRICE M.
DIED
JULY 13, 1889.
AGED
3 Y's. 6 M's. 4 D's.

CLARA H.
DIED
JUNE 15, 1889.
AGED 5 Y'rs. 7 D's.

CHILDREN OF
W. J. & S. J. ROBERTS