A Year of Time

 

…Though even thinking on the subject of time may prove discomforting, it is not a bad idea—especially at the beginning of a new year.

As we look into 2013 we look at a block of time. We see 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes, 31,536,000 seconds. And all is a gift from God. We have done nothing to deserve it, earn it, or purchased it. Like the air we breathe, time comes to us as a part of life.

The gift of time is not ours alone. It is given equally to each person. Rich and poor, educated and ignorant, strong and weak—every man, woman and child has the same twenty-four hours every day.

Another important thing about time is that you cannot stop it. There is no way to slow it down, turn it off, or adjust it. Time marches on.

And you cannot bring back time. Once it is gone, it is gone. Yesterday is lost forever. If yesterday is lost, tomorrow is uncertain. We may look ahead at a full year’s block of time, but we really have no guarantee that we will experience any of it.

Obviously, time is one of our most precious possessions. We can waste it. We can worry over it. We can spend it on ourselves. Or, as good stewards, we can invest it in the kingdom of God.

The new year is full of time. As the seconds tick away, will you be tossing time out the window, or will you make every minute count?

Author, Steven B. Cloud

No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven. (NLT)

Philippians 3:13-14

Things to Remember



I find what I look for in people. If I look for God, I find God. If I look for bad qualities, I find them. I, in a sense, select what I expect, and I receive it. A life without challenges would be like going to school without lessons to learn. Challenges come not to depress or get me down, but to master and to grow and to unfold thereby.

In the Father's wise and loving plan for me, no burden can fall upon me, no emergency can arise, no grief can overtake me, before I am given the grace and strength to meet them.

A rich, full life is not determined by outer circumstances and relationships. These can be contributory to it, but cannot be the source. I am happy or unhappy because of what I think and feel.

I can never lose anything that belongs to me, nor can I possess what is not really mine.

To never run from a problem: either it will chase me or I will run into another just like it, although it may have a different face or name.

To have no concern for tomorrow. Today is the yesterday over which I had concern.

To never bang on a closed door: Wait for it to open and then go through it.

A person who has come into my life has come either to teach me something, or to learn something from me.

- Unknown

Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance,

Proverbs 1:5

My Prayer

I pray
Today
That God will bring you
Peace
Where there’s been pain
Harmony
Where there’s been discord
Love
Where there’s been loneliness

I pray
Today
That God will bring you
Solace
Where there’s been sorrow
Justice
Where there’s been inequality
Clarity
Where there’s been chaos

I pray
Today
That He will heal your human heart
and help you face tomorrow
With a renewed sense of
Courage
Strength
And wisdom.

Ted Hibbard

"Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

Matthew 18:19-20

Two Days We Should Not Worry

There are two days in every week about which we should not worry, two days which should be kept free from fear and apprehension.

One of these days is Yesterday with all its mistakes and cares,
its faults and blunders, its aches and pains.

Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control.
All the money in the world cannot bring back Yesterday.

We cannot undo a single act we performed;
we cannot erase a single word we said.
Yesterday is gone forever.

The other day we should not worry about is Tomorrow
with all its possible adversities, its burdens,
its large promise and its poor performance;
Tomorrow is also beyond our immediate control.

Tomorrow's sun will rise,
either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds, but it will rise.
Until it does, we have no stake in Tomorrow,
for it is yet to be born.

This leaves only one day, Today.
Any person can fight the battle of just one day.
It is when you and I add the burdens of those two awful eternities Yesterday and Tomorrow that we break down.

It is not the experience of Today that drives a person mad,
it is the remorse or bitterness of something which happened Yesterday and the dread of what Tomorrow may bring.

Let us, therefore, Live but one day at a time.

by Author Unknown

The Round Tuit

This is a round tuit.
Guard it with your life, as Tuits are hard to come by-
especially round ones.
This is an indispensible item.
It will help you become a more efficient worker.
For years we have heard people say,
"I'll do it as soon as I get a Round Tuit."

Now that you have one,
you can accomplish all those things,
you put aside until you got a Round Tuit!

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.     

James 4:13-17   


Guilt Is Concerned With the Past. Worry Is Concerned About the Future. Contentment Enjoys the Present.

Psychologist William Marston once asked three thousand people, "What have you to live for?"  He was shocked to discover that 94 percent of the people he polled were simply enduring the present while they waited for the future.  Some indicated they were waiting for "something" to happen--waiting for children to grow up and leave home, waiting for next year, waiting for another time to take a long-awaited trip, waiting for someone to die, or waiting for tomorrow.  They had hope, but no ongoing purpose to their lives!

Only 6 percent of the people identified relationships and activities in the present tense of their lives that they counted as valuable reasons for living!

The 94 percent would be wise to recall the words of this poem by an unknown author:

During all the years since time began,

Today  has been the friend of man;

But in his blindness and his sorrow,

He looks to yesterday and tomorrow.

Forget past trials and your sorrow.

There was, but is, no yesterday,

And there may be no tomorrow.

Not that I am implying that I was in any personal want, for I have learned how to be content (satisfied to the point where I am not disturbed or disquieted) in whatever state I am.

Philippians 4:11

If Tomorrow Never Comes

THE LITTLE CHILD I AM TODAY

will always be within me,

sending out feelings

into my "grownup" mind.

Time and experience may seem

to bury him,

but the child will be there.

If I am now secure, feel loved,

and little hurts are healed,

in later years I'll feel down deep,

not cries of fear and pain,

but rather...songs.

from Listen to my Feelings

by Ruth Reardon

 

I have a dear friend who's having a rough time these days.  She has hurts from her childhood and youth, as well as hurts from her adult life that she is reliving every day.  She is so caught up in what was that she can't see what is.  I think we've all had times in our lives when this was true so that we can't see today.

We all have hurts from our childhood; those painful memories that immediately take us back to the time and place the incident occurred.  In a heartbeat we feel exactly what we felt all those years ago and know that we will never be the same again.  There is something that is within each one of us that we've never truly healed.  If we were lucky, we had parents or adults around us who helped to heal those wounds.  They couldn't erase them, but they helped us put an emotional band-aid on it and we found a way to get past it.

But there are those of us who weren't as fortunate.  They didn't have parents or adults who helped them heal their hurts and so they carried them forward, day after day, not only reliving the initial hurt but compounding it by adding to it each and every day.  And their hurts became bigger and bigger until they no longer could be covered with a band-aid, they had to be carried in a suitcase, which also became bigger and bigger. 

My friend has been carrying this trunk, actually several trunks, with her for years now, and the sad thing is, her trunks have now infected her children and her grandchildren, just as her mother's and grandmother's before her.  She is aware that this has happened but she has no idea what to do about it.  I have encouraged her to seek out a good counselor and begin the hard work of healing that little child within her.  She carries so much guilt about her life, that she is physically ill and unable to cope with any aspect of it.  She doesn't manage her money, her children are carrying the same issues forward into their own lives, her marriage is on the brink of disaster, and she doesn't believe she can carry on.

Well, she's right, she can't.  Not like this.  I am proud of her for finding a good therapist that is helping her address the issues that have always plagued her.  She is working to build her body so that it is stronger and not so dependent on the excess food and toxins she has put in it.  She is taking steps to make it better and I'm so proud of her.  It is not easy.  She is having to face demons that have plagued her for the better part of her life, but she is doing it-baby step by baby step.  And as she works on herself, those around her will be forced to change as well.

We ALL have our demons.  We all have our regrets.  We all are human and therefore we will continue to make mistakes, but the thing that I've been trying to get her to see and understand is that we can't undo what has been done.  So much of her time is spent on wishing away the past.  "If only this had been different.  If only this had never happened.  If I had done this differently." 

If only......  Those are two very big words, aren't they?  And so many of us get caught up in them.  It can be easy to do.  We make a mistake...a BIG one and we're immediately sorry for it.  We get up the next morning, and we're still bothered by it.  And each day for the next week, we still feel badly about what we did.  We've asked forgiveness from the person we wronged and they have given it, but we can't seem to forgive ourselves.  So we carry that bag around with us and it starts to infest everything we do.   Then we start to worry about doing it again, so not only is it in our baggage that we're dragging along behind us, it is now in our future, sitting out there somewhere on the horizon.  It is surrounding us.  We can't enjoy today, because we're so wrapped up in our yesterdays and our tomorrows.  Our todays are all used up before we even notice.

The reality is all we really have is today.  We can't undo what has been done.  It's done.  It's over, if you allow it to be.  What has happened has happened and no amount of wishing or hoping or praying will undo it.  What you can do is to forgive yourself and learn from it.  There is a lesson there to be learned.  Allow the lesson to be shown to you when the time is right.  If you dwell on it and try to force it, you won't be able to see it, but if you just let it come, it will and you will know what it is you were supposed to learn from this "bad" thing you did.

Don't move too far forward so that you begin worrying over tomorrow.  You know, it's just like Garth Brooks says, "If Tomorrow Never Comes."  Well, it just might not.  The reality is we have NO control over our tomorrows.  We can worry and fret and stew all we want, but it won't change anything about tomorrow.  It is all going to happen just as it will and unless you are God, all that worry will be for naught.  You will have spent all that time and energy on something that is absolutely worthless. 

You see, the only time we have is this moment, today, right now, and in this moment is the only control you or I have.  We have choices right now.  We can choose to make this moment a good one or we can choose to make it bad.  We can choose to embrace the love in this moment or we can choose to embrace the dark.  For some of us who have lived a lifetime without recognizing and understanding this, it can be a difficult shift and you may require some professional assistance to make it happen.  But it is possible, you can do it and what better time to start than Easter?  After all, isn't that what Jesus suffered and died on the cross for?  For you and me, for all our sins.  He did this so that we would not have to carry our own crosses into hell for all eternity.  We can leave our baggage at His door and He will gladly "throw it out" for you and for me. 

For some of us, this is difficult to believe.  After all, we have made so many big mistakes in our lives that we have come to believe that we can never be forgiven.  Well, we have been--you have been--so it's time to forgive ourselves and start living in the todays, the NOW moments, of our lives.  None of us can be assured that we will have more than this, so why take up your todays, your now moments, with anything that isn't full of love and hope? 

"If Tomorrow Never Comes" we will be satisfied that our todays were spent on all good things.  Not the worthless, earth-bound things of this life, but of love, hope, peace, faith and joy.  They carry us through all our todays and into our tomorrows. 

Blessings to all of you on this day before Easter!