Past - Present - Future

I think daily life could use a healthy combination of the past, present, and future...

First, get out your Bibles and read one of my favorite Psalms - #33.

It's talking about the steadfast love of the Lord... and if you read carefully, you'll notice it talks about God's love and faithfulness through the past, present, and future. :)

Past -
I LOVE to reflect on past events in my life... it gives me excitement and energy for the present and future. Like, this week I got to go and share my summer story with yet another group of students. It was so fun to relive the wonderful memories and lessons I had learned through my experiences! What a blessing! I also had a chance to share a quick summary of my personal testimony with the school secretary... and on my drive home I cried refreshing, cleansing tears in thankfulness for all that God has done in my life. :) I've been reading/skimming through old journal entries lately, and sometimes I even shock myself with the insights I gleaned in past days, and it's super sweet to have them even more solidly cemented in my life when I have the opportunity to review them.

Present -
As much as I love reflecting on the past, I can't let that steal the importance of the present! With each new day comes new mercies and opportunities to follow God's leading in each moment. There's people to meet and encourage, there's opportunity to learn new lessons, there's an obligation to stay focused on pressing tasks,... time is precious!! In the scheme of things, remember, life is SOOO short, so ENJOY today, and make the most of every opportunity to GLORIFY GOD (make God KNOWN!) and CELEBRATE God's love and faithfulness alive in your life. Don't miss any chance to share the truth with those around you. You can try and "make plans" to do more of this... but don't let the time you spend doing that distract you from the life to be lived THIS VERY MOMENT!

Future -
Ah... the future. :) I am SUCH a dreamer. Like I've said before, I get atleast a few new ideas every week for what I'd like to do with my short time here on this earth. But nothing has freed me up to do that as much as totally surrendering my life plans to the will of the Lord. I learned a big lesson this summer... I have not really learned to FULLY RELY ON GOD yet. I hadn't learned to trust God fully with what would happen with my life in each new day. Sure, I thought I was getting there... and the truth is, we'll probably never completely arrive while we're walking around on this distracting, demon-filled earth. However, following the opportunities God opens up to step beyond my comfort zone has given me even more peace and hope for the future than I had while I was trying to make "good, responsible plans" myself.

And as it says at the end of Psalm 33:
"Our soul waits for the LORD;
he is our help and our shield.
For our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.

Blessings, SMILE, and be FILLED to overflowing with the PEACE and JOY of our awesome God!