Enjoy Life Today, Yesterday Is Gone & Tomorrow May Never Come.
I have this quote in a place where I can see it everyday and I am reminded to live by it. Many times as humans we love to "plan" and keep ourselves busy. When we do this we are living our lives saying that "we are the masters of our domain and we hold tomorrow in our hands." The world teaches us the mentality of "serve me." If we are not careful we can become self serving and forget the true meaning of life and why we were put on this earth. Yes, God wants us to enjoy our life and wants us to do well, but there is a greater purpose and calling on our lives. We will not wake up and automatically start living this way, we need to "set" our minds ahead of time. We need to have gentle reminders set around the house. We need to read the word of God and pray daily.
I was reminded of this recently because I have several people in my life that are going through some real intense battles right now. It is a shame that difficult situations always seem to put things into perspective. Just waking up another day and being able to breathe is a gift. Do we wake up and say to God "Thank you for the breathe in my lungs and my beating heart?" We can take things like this for granted. This is a reminder though that we have NO control over our lives. We can play games and think that we do, but sooner or later you will come to the realization that we can do NOTHING without HIM. I have been reflecting lately and I have found myself continually cutting certain things out of my life, and adding in other things. I am making sure I do not stay the same and get stagnant. It can be VERY easy to get stuck in the day to day routine. We have to remind ourselves that we are ALIVE and that we need to maximize our time here and live each day like it is our last. I refuse to make excuses and believe that "this is all there is to life." I believe there are so many other things I have not uncovered yet. The world teaches us that we need to grind it out to have the "best" life. What is the "best" life according to the world........ More Money, Fancy Clothes, Big House, Dream Car, Into Looks, If something doesn't work, move onto the next best thing, always someone else's fault/ no accountability, do whatever your heart tells you to, live according to how you "feel"/ etc.
I am IN this world not OF this world! I refuse to conform to society and what the world says I should be doing. I feel like at times I am swimming up current and it can feel lonely. At times it can be discouraging because you see "others" getting things that you think you deserved, or things that you have prayed for. I would like to get personalize and break the above quote down and put it in my words and how I interpret it.
" Enjoy Life Today"
I look at one day at a time. I only look at that day alone and make sure I keep my blinders on. I am not looking to the next day ahead. I am working on to truly value the gift that is presented to me and not grumble and complain. There are many others that did not wake up today, or may be missing someone that did not wake up today. I am thankful for the gift of that day and I want to tell the Lord "Thank you!" I want to maximize that day. By maximizing I mean have all the key elements: Mind/Body/Spirit. I want to exercise my body for that day, I want to explore my mental side (journal), and I want to feed my spirit with the Word of God. I am yearning for balance. If I had a great day, then that is awesome. If I had a bad day then I am happy I survived it and I am looking to learn the lesson from it.
"Yesterday Is Gone"
Once I wake up to another day, I remind myself that yesterday is in the past and that chapter is closed. There is no need to revisit it or dwell on what happened. There is literally nothing I can do with yesterday. The only control I have is to see what I learned from it. Maybe there was a big important lesson that God needed me to learn. Many times when people are on their deathbed they look back over their life and revisit the: would have/ should have/ could have reel. They like to open up the entire book and revisit the regrets. This is honestly a #1 fear of mine. The thought shakes me to my core and I have made sure to live my life with no regrets!! How can I do this, you ask? Let me go into further detail. I do not hold grudges with ANYONE. I forgive ALL who hurt me. I say sorry even if it was not MY FAULT. I say I LOVE YOU. I choose to spend quality time with my loved ones and put my phone down and turn the tv off. I see that relationships are the most important thing. We are not guaranteed another day, so spend time living in the NOW with your loved ones. It is easy to become bitter and have that turn into hate with friends and family. Don't drink the poison!! This is what happens to those who lay alone on their death bed. This is something I will never have and it is a choice. You can start living this way every single day!!
"And Tomorrow May Never Come."
There is no guarantee that I will wake up tomorrow. I can have all of the plans mapped out in advance, it still doesn't guarantee me another day. Everything is on God's time and he decides! So what does this mean for me? This means that I need to maximize today as much as possible. Spend time with my loved ones, have no regrets, spend time with God, forgive others, and love others!! In life it is pretty rare to get second chances, so we need to give it our all. There is no time to waste. If you died today can you honestly say that you have a relationship with Jesus and you would go to heaven? If you died today what is the last thing you said to your family? If you died today are their relationships you wish you could repair? Be proactive and do things right now!! Start moving in that direction!!
I hope this blog post encouraged you and helped you take a moment to see what you maybe need to cut out or maybe develop some new habits. I encourage you to take this quote and put it in a place that reminds you daily of how to live!! I wanted to close up and put some examples below of a few things I have added in and cut out:
- Spend time in silence journaling, and collecting your thoughts. This is the layout for how I journal. I made it up but it works for me.
- Mon-Fri I make sure to workout and do physical activity (Sat and Sun I am off). After working all day at a computer I can honestly say I look forward to going outside and doing a garage workout and sweating. I physically and mentally feel better afterwards.
- Eating Healthy- I document in my mobile calendar everything I consume. It helps hold me accountable and it is nice to be able to look back and see how I am doing.
- Read The Bible With My Family- Every night we get together and go through our Bible Reading Plan and then discuss what the verse meant to us. We also go around and pray together
Some things I cut out:
- My phone is 100% down and I am 100% engaged with my family and self
- Limited TV time
- Alcohol
- Stress and Anxiety
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