Tomorrow May be Too Late

A high school senior, looking forward to going to college, inspiring to become a doctor kisses her parents and dashes out the door to go to school, smiling, and waving goodbye -- never realizing that before day's end, she would meet the fate of a deadly bullet.

A husband and wife have a lover's quarrel, laying back to back in bed -- he, thinking about apologizing, she, thinking about talking tomorrow. They fall asleep, never realizing that before daybreak, tragedy will hit home, bringing a lifetime of regret.

Two friends, departing, and promising to stay in touch -- to write -- to call. Days, weeks, months go back, both thinking about the other but finding no time to express their thoughts. One friend finally, picks up the phone never realizing that time would find a terminally ill friend on the other end.

Later, and I'll tell her how much I love her. Tomorrow, I'll say I'm sorry. Later, I'll call my friend. Tomorrow. Later. Tomorrow ? Too Late.

We too often look for the negative, the unflourished qualities in those that we say we love, and too often push them away, instead of drawing them into our lives. Regret ? grief -- pain can come suddenly, without warning. We must cherish the moments that we have to spend with our loved ones, and not take them -- or life for granted. We must give ourselves to life -- give ourselves to others -- give ourselves to love, realizing that if tomorrow does not come ? we will have no regrets.

Take a moment -- this day, to express your love, to give that overdue apology, or contact that friend ? because you never know -- tomorrow may be too late.

Copyright © 2002 by Audrina Jones Bunton. REPRINTING THIS ARTICLE: Permission is granted to reproduce or distribute this article only in its entirety and provided copyright is acknowledged. You can find other articles to choose from at http://www.purposefully-living.com/mailing%20list.htm

Motivational Speaker, Audrina Jones Bunton was born the seventh of eight children in her household in Pinehurst, North Carolina into a loving and committed Christian home. As she has 2 children, over 40 nieces and nephews and great- nieces and nephews, it is not unusual to find her under the same roof with many of her maternal five-generation family on weekends and on holidays. In her youth, she fondly recalls traveling throughout the U.S. with her family, as her parents ministered from state to state year after year-helping people as they traveled. A graduate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a Bachelor's degree in Sociology, Audrina is a Competent Toastmaster of Toastmasters International and serves as the North Carolina District Sergeant At Arms. She is a former counselor of the Durham Pregnancy Support Services, a Christian-oriented crisis pregnancy center in Durham, North Carolina and is currently a Social Research Assistant at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Audrina is currently studying at the Master's Divinity School in Evansville, Indiana with a combined concentration in Biblical Counseling and IABC certification.

She also serves as the Youth Director at the Come As You Are Evangelistic Center in Aberdeen, North Carolina where her mother, Lydia Jones is the pastor.

Modeling after a song that her mother so often sings, and one that Martin Luther King, Jr. often quoted, her life and speeches are based on the following lyrics, "If I can help somebody as I pass along, If I can cheer somebody with a word or song, If I can show somebody he's traveling wrong, Then my living will not be in vain."

Audrina resides with her husband William, and 2 children, Audrina Lorraine and William Woodrow.