​You Only Die Once… You Live Every Day

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Most of us have heard the saying, “You only live once.” It encourages people to see life for what it really is, a gift meant to be lived each day to its fullest. However, a friend of mine shared a quote along that same vein that expresses it even more clearly: you say, “you only live once,” but stated better, “You only die once, but you live every day.”

What I like about it is that it places the emphasis on each day as a gift from God, not just life in general. It reflects the idea behind carpe diem, the Latin phrase translated “seize the day,” meaning to make the most of each day.

The Bible speaks of life itself as a gift from God, reminding us that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above…” (James 1:17). From the very beginning, God formed the first man from the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life; and man became a living being (Gen. 2:7). Paul later affirms that God “gives to all life, breath, and all things,” and that “in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:25, 28). So yes, life itself is a gift from God that we only live once.

But the Bible also emphasizes the brevity and uncertainty of life. The psalmist observes, “The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years…For it is soon cut off, and we fly away” (Ps. 90:10). Job echoes the same truth: “He comes forth like a flower and fades away” (Job 14:1–2). James, on the other hand, stresses life’s uncertainty: “whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow…It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (James 4:14). These reminders urge us not to take even a single day for granted.

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“You only die once, but you live every day.” In this, the saying is true — “You only die once” (Heb. 9:27), but you live every day. But are we? I hope we see life as the God-given gift that it is and live every day to its fullest.