During this holiday season — and forever — cherish time with those you love. Treasure each moment, because there is no guarantee of another. Every second with those you love is precious. Don’t waste any of them.

Whether talking about where to go shopping or where to go for eternity, have the discussions you need. Enjoy the frivolous conversations you’ve taken for granted (or haven’t) for so many years, and drink in the deep profound discussions.

Those you love have always taught you. Learn from them.

Sometimes you have to learn not to be like them, like a young man who was sentenced this week, and the judge encouraged him to be different than the man who gave him his last name.

Many of us want to be like those we love because they have taught us to be kind and generous, to think for ourselves and make good choices, especially the ones that count. Choosing not to shoplift, for example, will keep us out of jail, but there is a deeper lesson in not taking things that don’t belong to us. That is one of respecting other people.

It is those kinds of lessons I am grateful to have learned from those I love and love me, especially my parents. It would never occur to me to take merchandise from a store without paying for it, for example, because of how I was raised. In fact, I would be more likely to leave a donation at the checkout counter for whatever charity they are collecting for, again because of how I was raised.

This weekend when I am able to spend some precious time with family, one of the projects we will do together is put together packages for the homeless in Pueblo, where my folks live. We all contribute some items for these bags, which a member of the church there distributes when it is his turn to provide a meal for the many people in that city who have no permanent address. I will be adding Band-Aids and hand wipes to the bags.

Whatever else we do together — eating together, talking, putting up Christmas decorations — will be precious to me, as every moment is with those I love.

Every moment.