The Perspective I Don't Have

I don't have hindsight for my today, not until it's over.

Where am I about to waste time I don't have?

What's the decision I'm going to regret later?

With my daughter recently off at college, I am adjusting to being the only estrogen led person in a house of hormonal boys. Example from today:

My boys will argue over a video game like it is life and death and they will say things to each other that they don’t mean. I want to sit them down and look at them and say if your brother died tomorrow none of this would matter and you would really wish that you could take back this wasted time. I have more perspective with age. I can see that in the long run they will have each other for always. I also come from the perspective of being an only child and wishing so much that I had a sibling.

I can be just like my boys. So many times, God wants me to see things from His perspective and all I see is what’s in front of my eyes.

He pleads with me through His word not to waste time arguing or in anxiety about tomorrow. Our enemy wants to steal our time, wrap it up in things that don’t or won’t matter, keeping us entirely occupied with what’s in front of us. He is so good at distraction. It keeps him from having to fight real battles with saints who are focused.

We lack vision but we strive so hard to see into tomorrow.

If we didn’t have tomorrow, what things would matter right now? They should be the things that matter anyway.

The monotony of life sometimes puts us in a fog. We can miss things right in front of us simply because they are ordinary. I’m praying today that God will lift my fog and help me deliberately look at my day with His perspective.

What’s one thing that you would want to do today if you weren’t sure of tomorrow?

Why don’t you do it?

Do it today.

Then tomorrow do something else that’s equally as important.

Would you reach out in love?

Would you tell someone about Jesus?

Would you confess a sin you’ve been hanging onto?

An equally good question might be: What would you stop doing?

I think I would stop planning so much about tomorrow. I'm not suggesting that we stop meal planning all together, but I can get really ahead of myself planning and shceming about scenarios that likely won't even happen. I could use a healthy dose of Luke chapter 12,

"Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!" (v.27,28)

God, help me gain Your perspective. Show me the things that are eternally pressing today. help me discern things that can wait for a tomorrow. Simplify my days so that I can look at them in light of eternity. help me choose the right things to prioritize and not waste time. Let everything I do be done in love (1 Corinthians 16:14) because time is short and I have this one life. In Jesus name, Amen.