A few months ago we got a QT Gas Station & Convenience Store.  As an opening promotion they had all 32 Oz. Fountain Drinks, Slushies, Cold Beverages and Ice Cream Cones on sale everyday for 49 cents.  This special deal was only supposed to last a few weeks, but they continued the deal throughout the summer.  While the “Red Solo Cup” has become Toby Keith’s best friend, for many of us the 32 Oz. QT Cup became our friend.  There was just something about walking in and getting a big ole cup of refreshment for 49 cents that put a smile on your face.

Yesterday was the end of the 49 cents smiles.  Fountain drinks are now 69 cents and slushies are 79 cents for a regular cup and 89 cents for a styrofoam cup.  When I stepped up to the counter with change in hand to pay for a couple of slushies last night, I was taken back just a bit when the clerk said with a sly smile:  “That’ll be $2.10!”

We all knew the day was coming.  In fact there had been some warning earlier in the week, but how do you prepare?  Things change and life moves on.  I did not run out this morning and begin my day with a QT Slushie and I am not really sure why?  It’s not the extra 20 cents.  It’s not that I am mad or upset.  It’s just that things in life have a beginning and an ending and that is part of life and when we get that, we start to get life.

It reminds me of what a wise man named Solomon once said in Ecclesiastes 3: 1-14 – “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:  2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3 a time to kill and a time to heal,a time to tear down and a time to build, 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.  9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.”

Things begin and things end.  People come and people go.  The time that we have right now, is the time that our Creator has given us and we should do everything we can to make the most of it for His glory.

I think a good way for me to do that right now is by checking the cushions on the couch for that extra 20 cents and going to get me a QT Slushie – hope to see ya there???  😉