My six-year-old doesn’t always like being six. He thinks life is unfair. He sees his nine-year-old sister and thinks life will be better at nine. He sees all the privileges she enjoys because of her age, but he doesn’t see any of the added responsibilities. He has concluded life is better at nine than six.
Of course my nine-year-old doesn’t always like being nine. She thinks life is unfair. She sees her fifteen-year-old cousin and thinks life will be better at fifteen. She sees all the privileges and none of the responsibilities and has concluded that life will be better at fifteen.
We understand the thoughts of my children, but we think it’s silly. We, of course, know that life at six, nine, or fifteen is pretty good. (See: Do You Know What Today Is?)
If we could give either of my kids any advice, it would likely include: enjoy being six and nine. Enjoy it. Live it. Learn what you are supposed to learn and tomorrow will come soon enough.
My guess is that the advice many of us need today is the very advice we would give my children. Don’t live for tomorrow; embrace today.
I don’t know where you will be tomorrow. It could be that the last place you want to be tomorrow is where you are today. Thankfully we live in a time and place in which you can make changes.
Don’t like your boss? Find a new job.
Don’t like your job? Learn a new skill.
Don’t like your company? Start your own business.
Where you will be tomorrow is unknown, but there are many choices you have which will likely determine what tomorrow holds.
But that doesn’t change today. At least for today, you are where you are. (See: You Chose This)
Maybe you’ve worked hard to get here.
Maybe you never expected to be here.
Chances are that wherever you are today is the result of many good decisions, some bad decisions, some blessings you didn’t deserve, and some bad luck you don’t understand.
No matter how you got here, you are here. And you can’t do anything about it right now. By the choices you make, you can change tomorrow, but you can’t do anything about changing today. (See: A Secret About Today Which Could Change Everything)
So what can you do? Whether you love it or hate it, there is only one thing you can do with today—you can live it.
Even as you plan for tomorrow or remember yesterday, your only charge for today is to live it to its fullest.
There is a reason you are where you are.
Sure your decisions played a part. No doubt there are some things you would do differently. Hopefully you are making better choices for tomorrow.
But you are here for greater reasons than your own choices. Others made the same choices you made and they aren’t where you are. Some have made far worse choices and they have had better results.
You are here because God has placed you here. He allowed you to make the choices you made. He allowed others to influence your life as they have. Where you live, what you do, the people you work with and for, the people you live with, are all in your life because He has allowed it.
None of this may be in your life tomorrow, but all of the circumstances and people are in your life today because God has allowed it.
And if He has allowed it, He has a plan for it. (See: One Thing You Have)
Consider: wherever you are today, at minimum God has allowed it and at maximum He has orchestrated every aspect of it. You are where you are for a reason.
Even as you plan for tomorrow, there are some things you are called to do today:
- Love
- Glorify God
- Serve those around you
- Know God
- Make God known
- Appreciate the good
- Endure the bad
- Forgive
- Give grace
- Use your talent
All of those things, and many more, can be done no matter where you live, what you do for a living, or who is around you. (See: Three Loves to Change Your Life)
You may not love where you are today. You may hope you aren’t there tomorrow. But until tomorrow comes, embrace today.
For More, See:
How To Determine What to Do: At Work, In Marriage, In Life
