I read this excerpt from an article written by Daniel Bovino. I liked this and how true it is for each of us, especially as we get older. 

At birth we board the train and meet our parents and we believe they will always travel by our sides.  As time goes by other people board our train and they are significant i. e. our siblings, friends, spouse and children. However, at some station, our parents step down from the train, leaving us on our journey alone. Others will step down at some time and leave a permanent vacuum. Some, however, will go so unnoticed, we don’t realize they vacated their seats. The train ride will be full of joy, sorrow, fantasy, expectations, hellos and farewells.  Success consists of having a good relationship with all passengers requiring that we give the best of ourselves.

The mystery to everyone is we do not know at which station we ourselves will step down. So, we must live the best way, love, forgive and offer the best of who we are.  It is important to do this because when the time comes for us to step down and leave our seat empty, we should leave behind beautiful memories for those who will continue to travel on thier train of life.  I wish you all a joyful journey.

Daniel’s analogy of our life to a train ride is good, but it needs to go even further.  It is important to have good relationships with people and give our best to the them.  God works in the world through worldly means, and we should work in the same way to both affect our salvation and to bring about the kingdom of heaven on earth.  We do this by acting charitably and loving our fellow man.  Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you (Luke 6:31) and in so doing we live out and obey God’s word.

On our train of life, there is no perfect sibling, no perfect job, no perfect child, no perfect marriage and no perfect set of people who will always do what we expect them to do.  We have control over one person in our life and that is ourself and we too are not faultless but hopefully try to do and be the best we can.  We do not have a flawless life, but thankfully what we do have is a perfect God who is able to lead us through this imperfect life with unfailing strength, incomparable wisdom and unconditional love.  How perfectly blessed we are.  Thanks be to God!

Patty