I was thinking about yesterday. Actually, I was thinking about many yesterdays. I have lived long enough to have built up quite a collection.
There are many things stored in my yesterdays: Good memories; Bad memories; Painful memories; Joyful memories. And within each memory, there are multiple emotions waiting to be relived: joy, sadness, anger, hope, anxiety, love, remorse, happiness.
Then I thought about tomorrow. Tomorrow is powerful. Tomorrow simultaneously brings the hope of new beginnings and the dread of problems or the pain of bad situations that never seem to change. Sometimes tomorrow looks promising; sometimes it worries me and fills my heart with dread.
When I look at yesterday, I often want to go back in time and fix things I messed up. Or, go back and relive joyful moments I never want to forget. When I look at tomorrow, I want to leap ahead and see what is about to happen. I want to see the future so I can prepare for the worst or make sure I don’t miss something good that is about to take place.
And when I am done reminiscing about yesterday and dreaming about tomorrow, I realize where I am. I am here. Not in yesterday. Not in tomorrow. But I am here…in the moment of today. And it is then I begin to live.
For while yesterday holds the power of memories gone by and tomorrow possesses the attraction of the unknown moments ahead, it is today which wins the contest for my attention.
Yesterday you are powerful; you can hold me back or propel me forward. Tomorrow, you are strong with your ability to infuse me with hope or weigh me down with worry. But today, only in you can I actually live.
So thank you yesterday for the memories. Thank you tomorrow for the promise of new beginnings. But, I choose today, because only you are the gift from God that gives me the opportunity to live.
I have instructed you TODAY…so that your confidence may be in the Lord. Proverbs 22:19
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