Skip to main content

New Day

Have you ever had a bad day? I'll bet you just laughed. I have had a few lately. Yesterday started out a little harried, and then rapidly snowballed into "A Series of Unfortunate Events." From the outside, looking in, it's not nearly as catastrophic as we see it--all the blunders and stumbles that sprinkle unsavory seasoning on our days, as if we mistook the tin of paprika for cinnamon, and dusted it all over the top of our cappuccino....we get the first whiff of our error just before taking that first gulp, but we take the gulp anyway, and...yuck!!! The price of a momentary lapse of attention can be hard to swallow in worse ways than that!

"I should have stayed in bed this morning!!" becomes our internal battle cry. Oh, yes it does.

Imagine Mel Gibson, warpaint and all, sitting on his horse, as he rallies the troops for revolution in that epically memorable scene from BraveHeart. His horse, snorting, stomping and dancing as his rider tries to control him during the thrill of the moment, everyone ready to raise their swords and rush to certain death in defense of their common cause, hearts pounding, armor clanking, and then, the legendary William Wallace battle cry..."DEFEEEEEEEEEEEAT!"

No, that's not how it went, was it? But that's what we do to ourselves, all to easily. I know it's paradoxical, but when that attitude takes the place of what should be a victory chant to get us through the day, we defeat ourselves over and over. Don't do it again, today.

This week, someone I encountered told about how she most admired the grandmother who raised her. Grandma had a philosophy--every day is a new day. No matter how much trouble the children had gotten into the day before (which was duly punished, she assured us), each morning, she was happy and proud of them all over again. "That was yesterday," she said about their misbehavior, "Today is a new day!"

Give yourself a break like that. If God can forgive our most capital offenses, are we more entitled to hold a grudge against ourselves? In being our own worst critics, hating ourselves over using paprika instead of cinnamon, we beat ourselves out of all of life's savory moments. Don't let the things you did wrong yesterday cast a shadow over the opportunities to do something right today.

22 Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.  --Lamentations 3:23-24

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NEMESIS, TRAPS AND DIGRESSIONS, OH MY!

Let's begin at the beginning. You have challenges. You have issues. You have enemies. All of the above would be true for any of us -- from slacker to slave, from victim to hero -- but there is actually one very small but highly distinguishing characteristic: perspective. Yes, the thing that makes mountains out of molehills--and vice versa--is undoubtedly the key to success or failure, and the common thread through the story of every hero. Something interesting about perspective: it can be found, lost, and regained -- although sometimes elusive, it's always attainable.  Through the next week, we will explore the various things responsible for our lost perspective, and talk about how to get it back. I was about to say that there are three things that generally rob us of our proper perspective, but that would imply that it can be taken from us, by force. The fact is, unfortunately, we sometimes "lose" our perspective as easily as we misplace our keys, cell phone, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Getting Smarter

How can you be specific about your goals when they are just a bunch of vague, foggy, wishes, hopes and dreams? It's time to take that pie-in-the-sky endeavor down from its celestial pedestal and see if it tastes as good as it looks from afar. (Forgive me for bringing up desserts so early in your diet-shackled day)...Is it really, truly unachievable, or that your perception because you don't currently have the means or mechanisms to reach it? If there is a yellow-brick road to your dream, I promise you that underneath lies a foundation of solid research. It's the best preparation for turning those dreams into reality. Would we have ever reached the moon, or even this continent, without it? As brilliant and passionate as the explorers of Earth and space were, without their tedious hours buried in books at a drafting table, we would probably all still be back in the old world, and certainly never beyond it, thinking the Earth was flat and all of space was unattainable.  ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rise above it

When you are stuck the middle of the proverbial worst case scenario, living life in a joyful, productive way involves more than just wading through the hurts and horrors with merely your vital signs intact. I have been there—dreading the alarm clock, and literally dragging yourself to work with the solitary, lofty hope of making to 5:00 without quitting, jumping off the building, or throwing your coffee on someone. Don’t look for your worth among the feedback and flack of your workplace. Don’t allow your job’s daily ups and downs   to be the barometer of your spiritual well-being. Don’t let the pressure of looming deadlines, impossible expectations, and unreasonable demands turn your day into a heavy yoke you begrudgingly put on every day, weighing your head down and robbing you of a broader, higher view. You were intended for greater things than just surviving – you were designed for something better: thriving, in spite of it. Jesus said that He came to give us life—not...
Post a Comment
Read more