boasting about tomorrow

{ scarf/watch/clutch: Nordstrom; blazer/bracelet: Target; top: JCrew; trousers: Loft; heels: Jessica Simpson; lipstain: Revlon gothic }

"Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.  What is your life?  For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.  Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."

{ James 4 v.14&15 }

Today is Wednesday.  It's not yesterday [Tuesday], or tomorrow [Thursday], or a year from now [2012], it's Wednesday.  I've been in this really annoying mindset lately of only being able to focus or think about the future.  I have been getting so caught up in my "to-do's" that I've been missing the opportunities that have been arising in the "right-now's".  Do you ever feel that way?  Or am I the only crazy woman who stumbles and gets so self-centered on my own tasks ahead of me?  If I am, you might as well stop reading, because you won't relate to this post at all.  Just sayin'.  But I have a hard time believing that I am the only one that gets wrapped up in my own little personal agenda.  

Here's a brief one-sided conversation that goes on in my head with God, "Sorry God, you're plans for me today are going to have to be put on hold, because I have so many other things to do besides listen or spend time with you."

  I hate when I have that mindset.  I'm never happy, never content, never satisfied when I get set in my stubborn self-centered ways.  

The first thing I thought of when I woke up this morning was, "What do I need to get done today?" Sound familiar? Story of the beginning to every day of my life.  There's nothing wrong with thinking those thoughts, but I truly want the first things I think of in the morning to be, "Okay God, what's your plan for me today.  How can I be used by you?  How can I serve you?  How can I glorify you?  Thank you for today."  Is there any way I can get that engrained in my little head of mine?  I would love that.  Instead of dwelling on the fact that I have spent too many of my first thoughts every morning focused on my own agenda, I'm going to move forward and pray that those thoughts can be refocused on my maker's agenda for me [because I'm sure His agenda for me is way more exciting, amusing, and fulfilling than my own! Let's be honest! Who doesn't want the ruler of the Universe ruling their day-to-day life?]  

I've been going through the book of James, and all I have to say is it's so convicting [but in a really good way, I promise].  Going through some of it, I'll be honest, I cringe.  I pretend that the scripture isn't yelling at me through the pages.  Seriously, though.  All I have to say is, praise the Lord for grace, or I would be long gone.  It's reassuring when James writes in 4v.6 "But he gives more grace."

This morning was one of those mornings where I couldn't stop stressing about my "to-do" list.  It's the end of the term, and this term is ending differently than any other term.  When I opened my Bible and read James 4, it couldn't have been a clearer message from the Lord.  The Lord's timing is so perfect.  As I sat on my couch, rereading the passage again and again, I was left with a sense of contentment.  

So long boasting about tomorrow, or the next day, or the day after that! I'll let tomorrow worry about itself.