What a wonderful sentiment and a great truth about how we should live our lives. We as Americans spend way too much time thinking about the things that are past, yesterday IS gone. We can never change what is past. We often defeat ourselves with past failures or lull ourselves into inactivity with past successes.
The value of our yesterdays is to apply the lessons learned and move forward successfully and to recall and remember those people and events helping us to become the person we are. We can make the mistake of overvaluing our past and trying to focus on what was or at least what our perception of what was.
We also spend a great deal of time worrying about what is coming in the days ahead. I read a study once that stated that forty-four percent of our concerns are things that never happen and only nine percent of the things we worry about come about exactly as we worried about them. Or as the gospel writer Matthew stated,
“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Matthew 6:34.
Many times when we plan we put too much into tomorrow. In truth tomorrow never comes, we are always waiting for it. When our next day comes there is a new tomorrow. The tomorrow attitude is one of the reasons we often procrastinate. We fall into the “why do today what you can put off until tomorrow” mentality. While we don’t want to minimize the importance of goals and planning for execution of the goals and plans we only have today!
Today is the most important day of our lives. It is the only time we can work with, what we have right now. This morning I played golf and that experience ifs forever behind me. Last Friday I met with four old friends and had a great visit that is forever behind me. We may meet again but not in the same way.
Right now we have a chance to accomplish something that in a short while will be frozen in the past. Let us begin so that we will use today wisely. Let us begin so that we will not look back with regret or worse still not have anything to show for the time we spent. Let us begin!!
