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: Teach us to number our days . . . (Psalm 90:12). I cling to the philosophy that age is just a number. But as a young doctor gently pointed out to me this weekend, “The added birthdays mean your heart has pumped a few more times than mine.” Eventually, these years do catch up. […]
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Read More →MERCY Scripture: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship (Romans 12:1 NIV). From my prayer journal this morning–on mercy, a quality I do not naturally have at all and much too […]
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Read More →Scripture: “God places the lonely in families . . .” (Psalm 68:6) Tommy Hillman was the love of my life, but I did not find him until my late thirties. We brought five almost-adult children into our marriage. They soon left, and we found ourselves uncomfortable empty-nesters. After much soul-searching, we applied as foster parents, […]
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Read More →Scripture: “Let the little children come to me . . .” (Luke 18:16) A little girl was given a lovely cross necklace and wore it every day. The pastor noticed and decided to teach the child a Bible lesson. “Jesus’s cross was not pretty and shiny. It was made of old, ugly wood.” She didn’t hesitate to reply. […]
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