Throughout our lifetime, there will be cycles when things are spinning like a merry-go-round
and we are just trying to hold on.
I’m talking about a vibrant life spinning full of plans, ideas, action, growth, perseverance,
possibilities, work, and inventions.
All good things.
But, we cannot do everything, be everything, and solve everything.
We just aren’t made to sustain that level of energy.
At some point, an assessment must take place.
What work is God’s work for me?
What focus is God’s focus for me?
What work will I be held accountable for?
What workload allows me to maintain the best testimony for Christ?
As time passes, we usually need to address and reassess areas of our lives or we will be
struggling and stuck in some areas, and overworking ourselves in others.
Recently, I had been spinning frantically on this merry-go-round of constant work,
constant action and relentless pursuit of spiritual growth, business growth,
health goals, etc.
I.WAS.EXHAUSTED
It was time to reassess!
To get off my own merry-go-round, I was going to create two plans.
1) Evaluate my workload and create an actual work schedule. No more 10 hour days.
2) Identify my strongholds, create a mindset shift, make a plan, and get busy “fixing” my issues.
After hours of writing, praying, and studying, I realized I would never get started slowing down the
merry-go-round because the “plan” was taking so long to write!
God then showed me instead, that while I continue in the long-term process of overcoming personal strongholds
and calming chaos in my schedule, I had to find victory and peace and satisfaction in today.
They needed to happen simultaneously.
Living today, for today, is how God wants me to navigate out of my tail spin.
And He will be my guide.
So God helped me change that unrealistic plan to a new plan that is sustainable but keeps me
moving forward in my different roles as wife, mother, entrepreneur, and servant to Christ.
Here is the new plan. Drumroll………
Live for today, plan for today, change for today,
grow for today. Be present for today.
I do acknowledge that many things require a plan for tomorrow,
a plan for upcoming months and even upcoming years.
Yes, make a budget anticipating future costs, plan for that baby on the way,
plan your journey to the mission field. Get clear on your standards for choosing a spouse,
think about how you will raise your children, set goals for spiritual growth, set goals for your business.
Yes, there are future plans we have to make, but we can’t LIVE in that future.
We can’t live in the future of who or where we want to be one day.
God was saying to me, “Make your plans, keep them in your view, but LIVE for today.”
If we get stuck in our future we will miss the daily precious moments of the journey.
We will miss the daily success, sweetness and peace that each day has to offer.
All of us can say, “Where has the time gone?”
There are possibly years in our past lost to not living in the moment and
not savoring all the gifts that day had to offer.
This new plan/principal God was teaching me allows me to take action and get victory one day at a time,
while savoring the moments and participating in today.
It allows forward momentum while redeeming the gift of the day.
Here is an example of mindset that I believe God does not want us having on an ongoing basis.
We have often heard the question being asked,
“If you learned you had one day left to live, what would you do?”
Our minds then go into a tizzy thinking of all the things we must do and say before our time is up.
We imagine ourselves in a frenzied hurry to finish a lifetime of living in the few hours we have left.
Although this question and its imagined answers have value,
to actually live daily with this mindset and carry out each moment
with that kind of energy and zeal is not sustainable.
This scenario and mind-set produces results and impact for a very short window of time.
But we need consistent victory in our daily tasks and responsibilities to triumphantly
get us to the end of our course.
The end of our course could be tomorrow, or it could be 60 years from now.
I believe God wants us to apply a similar mindset, but on a much more sustainable level.
In a way, we will be making decisions as if the new day was our last.
But instead of using our last day to try and change the world, our intention will be to use
that last day to move through it with a master plan in view, but focusing on God’s work for today.
Taking each obstacle as it comes.
Meeting each trial with the answer that it needs for that day.
Only taking on the workload that is sustainable for that day.
Meeting our family’s needs for that day.
Taking our plans and dreams and goals for our future, and implementing them one day at a time.
It is the daily victories, the daily wins, the daily steps forward that lead
to the future changes and impact we are wanting.
The cumulative effect of daily results is where lasting change and transformation happen.
“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes,
but when you look back everything is different?”
C.S. Lewis
What if the victories of today were replicated?
If today’s success was repeated for 365 days, what would that look like in one year?
Think of it as the growth of a young tree.
Every day it is growing, but at such a slow rate, we don’t see the daily progress.
But by the end of 365 days, that tree has grown 7-10 feet!
Or compare it to adding one sit-up each day.
That slow, consistent, small addition would result in quite a transformation at the end of 365 days!
To change our future,
we only need to change TODAY.
So, imagine one victory each day in controlling our temper, one victory each day of
including prayer in our schedule, one victory each day of crossing one thing off our list
that previously had been neglected. By the end of 365 days, we would see a transformation!
I believe many of us are working too hard, doing work God hasn’t given us,
and dealing with strongholds that oppress us.
By living one day at a time, we create daily, micro successes
that allow us to keep a forward momentum in reaching our desired future.
Let’s reach our destination of growth and transformation WHILE being present along the way.
I invite you to join me in adopting a new mantra so that we can all get off the merry-go-round.
Live for today, plan for today, change for today,
grow for today. Be present for today.
God led me to write a song about this exact topic.
MEET Jennifer.
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