3 Important Questions To Consider

I came across this review of a short story by Leo Tolstoy called The Three Questions, and got intrigued, so I searched for it and eventually read it.

The short story has 3 questions stated and I’m willing to bet that you’ll get 1 answer right and 2 wrong. The questions are:

1. When is the most important time?

2. Who is the most important person?

3. What is the most important thing you can do?

When is the most important time?

If you answered “now”, then you are right. It’s not the past; it’s not the future, but right here right now.

Why now? The past is just a memory. There’s nothing we can do to change what has already happened. It’s done, it’s over, it’s gone and there is no getting it back.
The future is still just an idea. It’s our thought of what’s going to happen and sometimes our prediction is right and sometimes it isn’t. The problem with the future that we can become attached to it and when things don’t work out as planned we feel lost as “this wasn’t the way it's supposed to happen.”
That leaves us with now. This very hour, minute, second is all we really have. It’s the most important time and it’s where we can achieve anything.

I’m guessing this is the question you got right.

Who is the most important person?

Most people will answer that the most important person is me, my spouse, or my kids. I think I need to disagree with you. Let me tell you why.
The most important person is the person you are with. Whenever you are alone with someone, that certain person is the most important person, regardless of who the person is and why are you together. And when you are sitting alone by yourself, you guessed it, YOU are the most important person.

Got it wrong? How about this one.
What is the most important thing you can do?

The most important thing you can do is to care. Care about anyone, we are all human and connected to one another by divine design. To care simply means to set aside our pride and bury our egos. It sets the stage for good intentions and blessings.

The most important time is now, the most important person is the person you are with, and the most important thing you can do is to care.

Life gives no assurances and we have no idea of how the future will come. The people we are with now may be saving our life in 10 minutes time, they may be the last people we will ever see. How do we want to act in the last moments of our life? Alternatively, maybe they are the next to go, how do we want to act with them in the last moments of their life? It may sound morbid but we are all here for a very short time and we may not know when or how but eventually we will all go.

We cannot change what came to pass, the future is still uncertain, but this very minute is ours to enjoy. How are we spending it? Are you watching TV when you should be apologizing or saying “I love you” to someone? Should you be making steps to getting out of debt or taking time for yourself?

What should you be doing with this gift of time? This very hour, minute, second.