TOMORROW
Scripture: Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth (Proverbs 27:1 NKJV).
Amateur poets often write about “tomorrow,” probably because it rhymes with “sorrow.” Philosophers talk as if it were a mountain we could conquer if we just make it through today. Educators teach children to prepare for tomorrow by doing their best today. But all of us have known instant, world-shattering change that erased all our preparations. Unexpected change comes without warning to turn our dreams into nightmares and our tomorrows into devastating tsunamis.
On one terrible day in 1986, a routine chest X-ray showed cancer in my husband’s chest. The bright tomorrows Tommy and I had planned were not to be. From that moment, every “today” became precious. Love he’d been too busy to express, he now shared with me and his sons. Those words carried us all through the “tomorrows” we thought we could not bear.
I would give the world for one more “today.” I’d like to play dominoes again until the wee hours. I’d like him to read stories again to our grandchildren while I doze in my recliner. I’d like to go fishing with him again, even if we never caught a fish. I wish his great-grandchildren could know him. But his legacy of love lives on, because he spent his “todays” well.
Each moment of today is a jewel, to be used as God Himself guides. As the beautiful hymn reminds us, “I don’t know about tomorrow . . . but I know Who holds my hand.” May my own journal, whether written on paper or only my heart, show that I spent today lovingly and well.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, may I please you in the way I use these priceless moments today.
Scripture: A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out—. Isaiah 42:3 NIV Reeds were tall pieces of thick grass that grew by the riverbanks. The Hebrew people collected the good pieces for walking canes, sandals, and baskets. But they’d throw away the bruised, cracked, and broken stalks. […]
Read More →Scripture: “I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart”—Ezekiel 36:26 NLT. All of us face a “someday” death. Sometimes the sentence slaps us in the face. Someone has said, “Nothing concentrates the mind of a man more than to […]
Read More →Scripture: “If God is for us, who can ever be against us?” Romans 8:31 NLT. The greatest chapter in the entire Bible may be Romans 8, which begins with, “No condemnation” and ends with “Nothing can separate us from God’s love.” Saint Paul’s writings are completely selfless— never self-centered, always Christ-centered. How did this former […]
Read More →Scripture: “The godly walk with integrity; blessed are their children who follow them” (Proverbs 20:7 NLT). In the corner of my living room sits my mother’s cherished Singer sewing machine. Almost one hundred years old now, I see it as a small monument to my parents’ rock-solid values. The machine was purchased in 1929, the year […]
Read More →Scripture: “We are pressed on every side, but we still have room to move. We are often in much trouble, but we never give up” (2 Corinthians 4:8 NLT). I remember seeing a magazine picture of a flower growing in the most inhospitable place imaginable—a slight crack in an expanse of concrete. First of all, […]
Read More →Scripture: “And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”—– Luke 9:23 I love the story of Ben Hur, which ends with angry, vengeful Judah remembering Jesus’s incredible words, “Father, forgive them.” At that moment, Judah let go […]
Read More →Scripture: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23 NIV). Because I’m classified as “elderly,” I have chosen to shelter in place for these last two weeks, obeying our governor’s directive. My daughter shops for me and gives me a few […]
Read More →Scripture: “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15 NIV We are like children playing on a seesaw, a teeter-totter. When each one is of a similar weight and in a similar situation, all is well. When one goes up, the other goes down. “How are you today?” “Just fine. How […]
Read More →POWERFUL PRAYER Scripture: “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16) If A = B and B = C, then A = C. Basic algebra, right? Our Bible class has been studying the life of Elijah, an ordinary man just like us (James 5:18), who is one of the most powerful […]
Read More →Scripture: No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8 NLT). February 22nd, Presidents’ Day, is the birthday of George Washington. That’s the way it was remembered when I was a […]
Read More →