Always Living For The Next Moment

One thing I'm teaching my kids is to not worry about the next day. My kids would frequently ask what we're going to do after bedtime -- and when they ask, we've barely started the new day! So, I would tell them, "Stop thinking about tomorrow. Think about today."


You know, we adults could be like children, always thinking about what we're going to do on the next day when we've barely lived today! We're thinking about the new job, or getting the bills paid, or planning a party or get together, or anything else that we could think about doing. We constantly find ourselves living in tomorrow rather than living today!


Why is that? Why do we always live for the next step? When we get up, we're already thinking about the next day before we even had the chance to live today.


Listen, you may not even live tomorrow! You don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. So why even think about a day that hasn't even come yet?


One time, King Solomon said, "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring" (Proverbs 27:1). Not only are we not to worry about tomorrow, but we shouldn't even brag about all the things we're going to do tomorrow. You never know what could happen between now (as you're reading this blog) and when you wake up the next day.


Now, all of this sounds very bleak, doesn't it? You may die tomorrow, or get hurt, or lose everything when you wake up. But the point is that you don't know WHAT could happen tomorrow, whether good or bad. Tomorrow didn't happen yet. 


However, you are living TODAY. You do have control over what you do today. You have no control of what will happen tomorrow -- because tomorrow doesn't even exist!


Yes, you're worried about bills, about finding a job, about your loved one's health status. But if the worst part hasn't happened yet, then why worry about it? If everything is still going fairly well for you, then focus on that rather than focusing on what's going to happen tomorrow.


One time, author Mark Twain said, "I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened." What is he telling us? He has lived his life worried about imaginary troubles. He spent each day worried about the next day. That is what we do, don't we? We spend today worried about the troubles of the next day.

One time in the Bible, Jesus told his disciples, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself" (Matt. 6:34). Then he adds that today has enough troubles for you to think about. Your plate should already be full of the problems of today. Why overfill your plate with tomorrow's troubles -- especially if those troubles aren't even real?


Listen, who cares about what happens tomorrow? Life may take a turn for the worst, but it may also take a turn for the best. You just don't know! But instead of spending your day thinking about what tomorrow has to bring, think about what TODAY has to bring -- and you'll see that today doesn't bring much (if any) trouble at all.


And think about this: while you're spending your time pondering on all the woes to come, you could be spending your time enjoying all the good that's around you. The more time you spend on focusing on the good things of TODAY, the less you'll think about tomorrow's mayhem (which may never happen, of course).


So right now, just put out tomorrow from your head. Tomorrow hasn't happened yet. And so far, today is going pretty awesome!