Today is the tomorrow you counted
on. How will you live this day
with gratitude? This statement and resulting question help me refocus my
attention on having gratitude for what I am given. All to often I take
advantage of the fact that thus far in my life “tomorrow” has always come.
Living one day with the unshakeable perception that the next will undoubtedly
follow permits too much procrastination. This mentality allows for the loss of
the “desired mosts” for the “desired nows.” If I truly consider that there is
absolutely no guarantee that tomorrow will certainly come my breath is pulled
from me. Frantic worry and overwhelmed confusion would overtake me as I try to
evaluate all that I should be doing now, what I should have done yesterday, and
what is impossible to have ever accomplished without more time. The reverse of
that is not to sit in anxiety about the future, but to live in gratitude about
the present. Yesterday, tomorrow came. For that I need to be thankful, but how?
Aside from overt thanks to God for the gift of today, the best way to live
today with gratitude is to not take tomorrow for granted. Do the things that
need to be done whether or not I feel like doing them. Say the things that need
to be said. See the things that need to be seen. Bless the people who need to
be blessed. This is the best and only way to truly live today with gratitude
for the fact that today is yesterdays tomorrow and that may not ever be true
again.
