Starting Now!

I often feel at the end of Saturday the same way I feel at the end of summer: Where did it go?

I typically have so many hopes and plans for "time off."  I think about the books I will read, the rooms I will clean, the yard work I will accomplish.  Then the day--or the season--comes and goes with only a fraction of those items completed.  If I dwell on it, it can be discouraging.

I suppose an alternative would be to make no plans, have no ambition, and thus experience no disappointment. But here's another idea: Trust in the God of all time that He is ordering my days. Arise each morning with a prayer for Him to guide my hours and moments, be sensitive to the needs of those around me, do the work I have before me, and end the day with no regrets.

That is so easy to write, and so tricky to actually do. Here's a bigger thought. I don't want to get to the end of my life--a prospect that is easier to imagine with each passing season--and think, What happened?

With the psalmist, I am asking God to teach me to "number [my] days" so that I may "apply [my] heart to wisdom" (Psalm 90:12). I don't wish to be morbid, but it's an undeniable fact that my days are numbered--and yours are too.

My memory passage for this month is Proverbs chapter 3. We are all familiar with verses 5 and 6: "Trust in the LORD with all thy heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path."

I don't know that it's possible to live with no regrets at all, but I'm hoping and praying that I can come to the end of my days in peace and confidence that I did what God put me here for. 

Starting now.

       --Sherry Poff