by Miranda Holman

This post is dedicated to my father, James Scott Hutchins

How do you define a Productive Life?

Is it achieving all the goals you set for yourself?

Or is it just simply getting through another day?

Productive Life can be used to describe something that produces a positive result.

So maybe it is achieving all your goals you set or surviving another day at work or school, but to me it has a bigger meaning.

I don’t want to just live with an end in mind, I want to  Embrace the Productive Life I  have.

I can write this post and be productive, but is it going to have a positive effect on my life?

I have to chose whether what I do is going to affect me in a bigger way in order for me to have a Productive Life.

My father, has worked his fingers to the bone since he was a small boy.  When most elementary aged students are enjoying playing baseball and swimming with their friends, my father was traveling back and forth to Missouri to work in the cotton fields to help supply the needs of his family.

 

When my father was in 6th grade, he had to quit school to work in the fields full time.  After that, he never continued to slow down.

After meeting and marrying my mother at the age of 20, my father worked hard to support his bride along with the four children that would come into his life through the next fifteen years.

He worked to supply a home for his family, as well as food, and extras that we thought we needed.

My father kept a garden for fresh food, along with chickens for fresh eggs.  He hunted deer, squirrel and rabbits to supply fresh meat along with fishing when the weather was good.

When he wasn’t working at his job, he was working on our property, adding rooms to our house to provide for our growing family, as well as remodeling to make it more livable for a large family.

My father retired at the age of sixty to care for my mother who was doing of cancer.  After she passed he went right back to working the land, the same way he had all his life.

Today at the age of seventy-four, my father still works everyday to make the most out of this one life that God has given him.

 

He works his garden, he takes care of his chickens and he helps every person who needs help in their life.

 

I look at my life and I realize that the things I have chosen so far as not been very productive as far as in the long run.

Then I look at my father’s life and I realize that he has Embraced the Productive Life.

He has taken every moment that God has allowed him to have and make sure that the moments ended with a positive side.  He was never afraid of hard work, risks, or bad situations.  He faced them head on and continued living in a productive way without ever slowing down.

My father has every right to look at his life and be proud of the life he lived.

Are you Embracing a Productive Life?

If you answered no, then you still have time to Refresh and Renew the life you were given.