TODAY IS EVERYTHING. LIVE IT WITH GRATITUDE.

Today is a new day .... literally a new day. Yesterday is gone ... no matter how much you may want it to stay because you had a great time with it ... it can't because it's time is done. Like everything else in life has its own appointed time and too has its beginning and its end.
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But admittedly we live our days like we own it and behave such that if it should end it will when we feel it should. So thus we continue to ... waste time instead of organizing it... waste resources instead of building upon it... waste opportunities instead of nurturing it... waste moments instead of making it count... all with and in gay abandon. Parang wala nang bukas. Que sera sera.. whatever will be, will be. Our wrong. Our bad.
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Maybe nice because, as many believe it, it can relieve us of a few if not all unnecessary and perceived stress and anxiety over the unknown future which we fear so much. Yet have you ever tried to think that those worries and anxieties of the past are no more in the present? Check it out; you'll find most of them gone. Though some of them may be valid when it comes to life's basic needs but the rest of it .... just plain worry and anxiety creating mountains out of mere mole hills.
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Life and time stops for no one. It moves on and along with or without you and me, like it or not. But it does leave the big choice to us whether we want to come along... or just stay where we are and as we are. A friend once said to me that it is something we have no control over. Agreed but only on things which require age or aging. But in the area of growth, development, progress, and maturity is a choice which we each have to make for ourselves alone. How often must we be told that?! Nobody can do it for us. Time won't do it for us either because it is not its business to make us grow inside out .. as we are expected to by a higher authority and divine design.
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So what's my point? What I'm trying to say is this.... hold on to your today with your best! Treasure it... savor it... relish it... love it... make it count... be grateful for it... fill it with worthy things... learn whatever there is to learn from it... create good memories... be the best person you can be TODAY...... for yourself and for others, too. We do not live solitary lives; we all stand connected in many ways, tangible or intangible.
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Allow me this quote from my favorite book (as you all may well already know -- 'Good Morning... God') ......................... "The heart of gratitude is one of My most priceless treasures. The heart of simple childlike thankfulness. How I respond to such a one. How I delight in doing all things well for that dear person. The one with the grateful heart!"
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Also .. Philippians 4:6 reminds us.............
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
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Unquote. 
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Today is a gift.... God's wonderful gift. Let's do with it what we usually do with something we love...... handle it with care!! Love it for it may never come again. Today is for today, not yesterday nor for tomorrow.
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God bless you and your dearest ones.

YOU'LL ALWAYS GET A CHANCE WITH YOUR TOMORROW

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Big thanks to friend Mr. Quote Man for this wonderful quote......

'Tomorrow is the most important thing in life.
Comes into us at midnight very clean.
It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands.
It hopes we've learned something from yesterday.'
 (John Wayne)

Tomorrow gives us a chance for a clean slate to start our life with. Yet some say that we never get a chance in life. Well, this poem says otherwise. On the contrary it says that we get a chance every day..... everyday to create, to build, to shape, to forgive, to try it one more time, to improve on something, to live anew.

That's great, isn't it?

But did you see the catch there?  '.....It hopes we've learned something from yesterday.'  You see, the chance it offers us is connected with yesterday's lessons. Meaning, we will and can create a new day and life armed with yesterday's lessons and learning. We cannot build something with nothing at all. A carpenter cannot hope to build a structure without the proper tools of his trade and the necessary materials for the project. There always has to be something of value, no matter if it be minute or colossal-tangible or intangible, which will give us that mighty push forward to do something.

So what could those be?  Those could be many different things to many different people, I now understand. I asked a few friends and they looked back to their yesterdays or yesteryears in serious retrospect. To quote.........

'...  a firm resolve not to be poor for I have known the misery of poverty'
'...  a strong spirit to fight injustice for I have learned the bitter lesson that justice delayed is justice denied'
'...  to build on good character for I have learned that money and fame does not make the man'
'... to value good relationships for I have lost good people with carelessness and neglect'

To name just a few.

They were ready for it armed with the lessons of their yesterdays. Nope, they didn't wait for that  'one big chance in life'. Because they knew that they would get it everyday.  My friend summed it up with this.......  'You'll  always get a chance with your tomorrow.'

Indeed.....

"It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands.
It hopes we've learned something from yesterday."

Blessings, everyone. Tomorrow's waiting.
(Thanks to the internet for these lovely pictures.)

SHOVE THAT OLD NONSENSE AWAY

(Fourth of short series.)

Remember those times when we would usually fret and worry whether we did the right thing or not, whether we made a good impression or ugh!, whether we achieved success or bungled it all up --- all were such a waste of time.. I now realize. Oh yes, we knew those things long before ..but.. one truly never stops learning - new lessons or old ones. Life has a way of making us do the tests again and again. Even if we think we've learned it well the first time. Life, the good teacher that she is, knows better and will have us on repeat, redo, rework (ouch!) until she's satisfied that we got it. Only then will we get that passing mark.

The many things which transpire in a person's day are all there for that day alone. Believe it or not. That is those which directly concern YOU (what concerns others is their own) -- your thoughts, attitudes, feelings, and behavior towards your day. Everything which you had done rose from this mental emotional physical and spiritual setup that you brought into your day. You give to your day what you are equipped with; you cannot give what you don't have.

I think that we should try to understand this better.... that God gives to us only what is sufficient for the day -- the challenges, the issues, hurdles, tests, trials, strength -- and what other things we may need to cope with our day. Everything is sufficient for the day. God has so planned it that way.

It's quite simple but we seem to be missing His point. Live life one day at a time. Today should be lived with everything that we've got (talent, skill, wealth, knowledge, ambition etc), with all that we are (carpenter, writer, minister, actor, driver, clerk, doctor, president, lawyer, wife, son, lolo and lola, etc), and with the purpose of giving glory to God. You've heard this before... 'life is God's gift to us; what we do with it is our gift to God'.

With this in focus, we will have no need for regret, the what if, I should not have, why did I do that, oh no I messed up, or I'm sorry for being such a big fool! Shove that old nonsense away. When you have done your very best... that should be good enough. By the way, your very best.. is God's best too.

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let's have this instead... 'today is done; did all I could with it. let's see what tomorrow will bring.' It's a new day!Thank God!