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: Now the servants and officers who had made a fire of coals stood there, for it was cold, and they warmed themselves (John 18:18 NKJV). When I was a child, we lived in southwestern Kansas. People heated their houses with coal, brought by trainloads from faraway mines. The black rocks burned for hours without […]
Read More →Scripture: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might (Ephesians 6:10 NKJV). In AD 325, the Council of Nicaea was convened by Emperor Constantine to debate the nature of the Holy Trinity. Arius, one of the priests, argued that Jesus the Son was not equal to God the Father. St. Nicholas, then Bishop […]
Read More →Scripture: The trees of the field will clap their hands! (Isaiah 55:12 NLT). In the 8th century, St. Boniface left Britain and traveled to Germany as a missionary. He came upon a chieftain about to offer his own little son as a human sacrifice to a pagan god whom they believed lived in a huge oak tree. Interrupting […]
Read More →Scripture: On earth peace, goodwill toward men! (Luke 2:14 NKJV). Mother Teresa, the little Albanian nun who ministered to the poorest of the poor, amazed the twentieth century with her courage and selflessness. Canonized as a saint by her church, she founded homes in 450 centers worldwide. By the time of her death, her Missionaries […]
Read More →A CHRISTIAN HALLOWEEN Scripture: You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name (John 15:16 NLT). This evening will bring dozens of costume-clad trick-or-treaters to our doors with plastic buckets to hold the candy […]
Read More →Scripture: This son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found (Luke 15:24 NLT) .One of the churches I attended for several years no longer offered Vacation Bible School because too many parents failed to pick their children up until late afternoon. Then a new […]
Read More →THE CLENCHED FIST Scripture: Whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven (Matthew 10:33 NKJV). Josef Stalin, the murderous dictator of Russia. had been preparing for the ministry when he was influenced by the God-hater Nietzsche and broke from Christianity. On Stalin’s deathbed, his daughter said […]
Read More →Scripture: Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous (1 Peter 3:8 NKJV). Mother Teresa’s feet reflected a woman who took on the filth of the world to carry out Jesus’ command to love the poor in a radical way. Shane Claiborne, who […]
Read More →Scripture: For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God (Romans 13:1 NLT). In the 17th century, a movement spread throughout European Christianity called Pietism. This emphasized personal transformation through spiritual rebirth and renewal, individual devotion, and piety. All were excellent goals, but the pietists also […]
Read More →Scripture: Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8 NLT). Legend has it that when the Greeks were unable to capture the city of Troy after a ten-year siege, they resorted to a clever deception. Their army pretended […]
Read More →