"Today" Should Be a Verb — Carol McLeod Ministries | Find Joy in Your Journey — Carol McLeod Ministries | Find Joy in Your Everyday Life
I think that one of my glaring weaknesses is that I tend to look back through the pages of time more often than is necessary or healthy.
My heart repeatedly flips through the memory book of yesterday … as I relive moments … savor past holidays … enjoy ordinary days … and recall the sweet sound of voices and laughter.
Why am I like this?
Does everyone do this?
Or is it a fault unique only to me?
Frequently I long for … even ache for … “the good old days” of yesteryear.
“Sometimes you never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”
When I find myself refusing to escape from the time tunnel of reminiscence, I admit that I am stubbornly focusing on a perception that is only half-true.
I refuse to recall the “hard” … and only linger upon the “easy”.
I forget the pain …and solely embrace the delight.
I ignore the aggravations … but splash in the pleasantries.
Sometimes I wonder if the reason I default to the happy days of the past is because I am unhappy with my life today.
That is likely partially true … but not fully so.
I actually love my current life …
I love being a Marmee to 9 delicious grandchildren …
I love serving the Lord … writing books … ministering to a lost and hurting generation … teaching the Word of God to anyone who will listen …
I love the friendships I have cultivated over the years and now are bearing rich fruit …
I love the stage of marriage that I am in … even though Craig and I both travel a lot … when we are together it is good … very, very good.
And yet … I wonder if I am sincerely engaged in today simply because I can so quickly and easily get lost in yesterday.
When the children were young …
When I lived near my mom …
When the children were all following the Lord …
When my dad was alive …
When my children needed me …
When I had more of life in front of me than behind me …
I have heard it said that memories are the personal diary that we get to carry in our hearts.
I know that to be true.
“Sometimes small memories cover a large part of our hearts.”
Maybe the conundrum is not in the constant remembering as much as it is the emotions that the memories stir up in my heart.
If I am constantly melancholy … that is not a good thing.
If I can be happy over the life I have been given … that is a good thing.
If I would rather have it be yesterday than today … that is not a good thing.
If I can learn the lessons of yesterday and apply them to today … that is a good thing.
If remembering yesterday makes me unhappy with today … that is not a good thing.
If the goodness that I have experienced in my life fills my heart with gratitude …that is a wonderful thing.
“Sometimes memories sneak out from my eyes and roll down my cheeks.”
And so, I trudge forward … armed with my memories … with gratitude in my heart … and with the wisdom that I have attained.
I can linger upon the sweetness of yesterday only momentarily because I must live fully in today.
I’ve often believed that the word “today” should be a verb.
I need to “today” with my whole heart.
I must “today” enthusiastically and enjoy the treasure that it holds.
I must “today” in moments of quietude rather than reflect upon the melody of yesterday.
I need to choose to “today” even when my heart wants to remain in my memories.
And there comes a defining moment in my search for happiness among the shadows of the past when I determine to default to my faith rather than to my feelings.
As I choose not to ignore the photograph album of my heart but to just set it aside for now … I decide to open a different book … a grander book … an eternal book.
The Bible does indeed have an opinion on what I should remember and what I should forget.
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits.”
Psalm 103:2
If I can look at the past and applaud the Lord for His goodness … then I get to remember.
“That they should put their confidence in God And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments.”
Psalm 78:7
If thinking about yesterday increases my confidence in the Lord and in His faithfulness … then I get to remember.
“I shall remember the deeds of the LORD; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.”
Psalm 77:11
As I look back upon the ages and stages of my life, I need to forget my weaknesses, failures and disappointments, and fully remember everything that God has done for me.
If I can forget “my stuff” and remember only “His stuff” … it is then that I discover the power and purpose of memory.
If I can remember what God has done … that memory will lay a solid foundation in my heart as I wait for what He will do tomorrow.
I’m on a journey … as we all are.
I am learning to lay down my preferences … my opinions … and even my memories at the foot of that old rugged cross.
I am dying to self … and committing myself to become more like Christ.
And so today … I wrap up those bittersweet memories with the truth of Scripture … and I set my face toward tomorrow.
He will be there to meet me.
“Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect,
but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do:
forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 3:12 – 13
Thanks for listening to my heart this week. As you know by now, my heart is truly not a perfect heart, but it is a heart that is filled to overflowing with gratitude for the life I have been given and for the people who walk with me. And, it continues to be a heart that is relentlessly chasing after God and all that He is!
