PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
At the end of the year, we tend to look back at what we have accomplished. We also look back at the negative things that have happened and think about what we have not accomplished. We evaluate ourselves to see if we have lived up to the last years, new year resolutions. We look at our present circumstances and wonder how we got to this point in our lives and wish we had done things differently. We also look towards next year and the goals we want to achieve.
There are many things that have happened that I wish I could go back and redo. Things that came out of my mouth that shouldn’t or things I could have said that I did not. My husband went through a deep two-year depression. Because of his health issues, he had to retire early from the post office and from being a preacher and elder of the church. He felt worthless, he felt like a failure. He became stuck in the past, not seeing the present opportunities and not seeing any productive future! There was one day that he said to me that there was just nothing he could do with his current health issues. Right then and there, I wrote down 100 things that he could do by sitting in his chair in front of his computer. When we become stuck in the misadventures of our past, we miss out on what is right there in front of us for today. We cannot see any good road ahead and wallow in the mire of the past failures. Paul tells us in Philippians 3:13-14, “…one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ.” It is hard to forget those things of the past that have pulled us down. But we can learn from the past. We can realize what we could have done differently, even if the circumstances were out of our control. We can live today and be the very best we possibly can. We can learn from those mistakes. In the verse above, Paul tells us to press towards the goal. What is that goal? What is it that helps us heal from the past? The realization that we can live with God in heaven, forever if we have lived our lives for Him. When we have that hope in the future ahead of us, it helps us to move forward and not get stuck in that muddy mire of past failures and miss out on present opportunities!
This last year, a big accomplishment I achieved, was to sign a contract with a publishing company to publish a lady’s bible study titled “God’s Beauty Plan.” This has been in the works for several years. I am so thankful for the gentle nudges by God to get it in the works. I have dedicated the study to my mother, who will be gone 3 yrs. the end of January. She was my editor, my researcher and my best friend. She was a huge part of this project. I think back to the past years that I could call her on the phone and get her advice. There have been many times during these three years, that I have actually reached for the phone and then realized that she is no longer here on this earth. I could become stagnant in my present life, because of those feelings of sadness. But I realize, every lesson of the study has memories of her and how she helped me and the many phone conversations we had about a particular subject. I thank God for her love and dedication to the Lord and the amazing example she set for everyone she came in contact with. She encouraged me to get it published. But I always found an excuse why not to do it. I feel so sad that she never will know that I finally did it, but I cannot live today in those feelings of sadness. All I can do, is to do the best I can today-with what I have today-in whatever situation I find myself in today.
My dad, brother and I, in the last month, went to my mother’s grave to put fresh flowers on it. My dad and brother are not as quick as they use to be and we ended up at the graveyard in the dark. My brother turned on the car lights and shown them on her tombstone so my dad could get the wire cutters and place the flowers on top of the stone. As you probably already guessed, his car lights went out. I went back, in the dark, to my brother’s car to get a flashlight. Here my brother, me and our 85-year-old dad were in the graveyard, with a flashlight trying to attach some pretty flowers on my mother’s grave! I am surprised that someone did not call the police! We had several tears remembering what this time of year meant to my mother and her traditions that we all loved so much. It would be easy to get stuck in that past and not live in the present, thereby not having a future. At our family celebration each year since she has been gone, my brother and I try to keep some of her traditions alive. But we also have started new ones. Our family has been blessed, by my granddaughter and her husband having a baby in May and also, my new grandbaby, that was born in November. I want our family gatherings for these little one and the ones to come, to be filled with memories of those who have gone before us, but also with new traditions that lead towards the future! Getting stuck in the past and that sadness, will not take the traditions that have been started today, into the future!
I have been blessed with a great-granddaughter and also a granddaughter this year. (That can happen when your oldest is ten years older than your youngest.) These new little ones, will never know, my husband, my mother, my grandparents. That is very sad to me. I know there are many hurting this time of year because of the loss of a loved one. All of those first special happenings in that first year, after they have passed, are so very hard! But our loved one’s memories can be kept alive in the present to the younger generations and will help to shape these little one’s future. Forgetting the past in the verse in Philippians, means not living and wallowing in the things of the past that we have done; thus, making us not able to see the joys and opportunities of the present. Remembering what happened in the past, can help us look forward to how we want to forge into our future!
My mother’s favorite bible verse was Ephesians 3:20-21. It reads “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” When we have the power of God within us, giving us fuel for our future, we can do so much more than we can ever imagine! Our electricity in our homes, can go out at times. But when we have the “electricity” from God, which we plug into as our source of energy, we can do things that we never knew were possible! God helps us heal from our past regrets and the sadness of those we have lost. God can help us-we just have to reach out to Him for strength! One of my favorite verses in the bible are in Jeremiah 29:11-13. “For I know the thoughts I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” God wants us to step into our future with hope. Our hope is based on Jesus dying on the cross for us; taking all that sin and sadness upon Himself. We must lead our lives in service to Him today, because we have a future glorious home in heaven, He has promised us and has gone to prepare for us.
We can make the good things from the past come alive through what we do today. We can learn from the things of the past that are holding us back from enjoying and living for the Lord today. Learn from the past mistakes and release them to God and don’t dwell on them. Learn from the memories from your past. Take the little things from today to enrich your future. We have hope through the knowledge that if we reach out to Him, He will lead us to heaven one day. Use your memories of the past to enrich today, which lead into your future!
On our tombstones there is a dash in between the day we were born and the day we die. That dash represents our lives. It represents our past, our today and determines our future! We don’t know what our future holds, but we do know who holds the future!
May God bless you as you look forward and not behind! Till next time.
(I am trying to post a new article every two weeks. I am leaving January 5th to go to Norfolk, Virginia to meet my newest granddaughter. I will be there a week, so I may not get another post out for three weeks.)
Keela