Back To The Grind!

When the time arrived to wrap up my morning study time today, I arose from my desk and walked into our living room.  My intent was to open up all the blinds, turn on a CD so as to fill the house with the words of evangelist Keith Moore as he sang scripturally based  songs about healing, and then go upstairs to help my wife get ready for the day.  I got distracted though, when I looked upon our large Christmas tree located in the central part of the room.

My feelings immediately began to sway as I considered that yesterday was the day when most people took down their trees and retired all their decorations for another year.  This was always a ritual for my dad.  He would bring all the empty storage boxes back in from the garage and spend the day filling them back up, while he happily watched the various College Bowl games on TV.  As a child, it was a sad day for me.  It meant that all the anticipation and joys of the Christmas season were officially over and worst of all… I had to return to school the next day!

All that cruised through my mind in the few moments that it took to gaze upon the darken tree.  Once again, I had a decision to make.  Was I going to dwell on the past and allow depression to gather its dark clouds around my being, or was I going to move ahead and look forward to the good expectations that I have for the next year?  In an instant I made two major decisions.  First of all I decided that I was going to break the family tradition and keep the tree up for at least another week, and secondly, I decided that I was not going to allow the past to influence my future.

Yesterday we talked about doing things better in 2012 than we did in 2011.  If you take into consideration my second decision this morning, then you would see that in order to succeed in your goals in this new year, that you will have to concentrate on the improvements you’re striving for rather than on the shortcomings from the previous year.  The enemy of our souls loves to get us dwelling on what is wrong with us, when our loving heavenly Father would much rather that we center our thoughts and base our efforts on what’s right.  This not only builds self esteem and confidence, but it helps you to stay up in a world that tries to bring you down!

So this morning I proceeded to turn on the beautiful multi-colored lights on the tree, opened up all the blinds so that the morning light could come streaming in, turned on the CD and hummed a happy tune as I bounded up the stairs to start the day, as well as the year with a new found confidence, joy and an unerring trust in my Lord and in the truth of His Word!  Have a blessed day today.  Stay tuned and keep asking yourself… “What GOOD THINGS am I expecting today?”