January 1, 2013
Someone has said that today is a marvel of opportunity, crucified between two thieves, yesterday and tomorrow! Today, this very day, is one of the most wonderfully precious things you will ever have.
Today you can do some of the things that you’ve been putting off for so long. You can’t do them yesterday and may not have the chance to do them tomorrow, but today is yours! Today you can be the kind of person you always dreamed you’d be “tomorrow.” This is that tomorrow!
You’ve always intended some “tomorrow” to get right with God; this is that tomorrow. Your yesterdays are left with God, and none of their disappointments should be dragged into this day. Tomorrow is still unborn and you shouldn’t borrow from it. Today is yours.
Today—filled with golden opportunities and pregnant with great possibilities! This is the golden tomorrow that you dreamed about yesterday.—Virginia Brandt Berg1
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Make the choice to embrace this day. Do not let your TODAY be stolen by the ghost of yesterday or the “To-Do” list of tomorrow! It’s inspiring to see all the wonderfully amazing things that can happen in a day in which you participate.—Steve Maraboli2
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If we could only do this: Take life just for the day! It’s letting life mass up on you and thinking that this thing has to be borne for many days that oppresses you and burdens you. God’s Word says, “As thy day, so shall thy strength be.”3
You can have faith for almost anything if you’ll take it a day at a time. In the morning of any day, today, look up and put your hand in the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ and say, “Lord, I believe Your Word. You have promised strength for today. This day I will trust You; this day I will, with Your help, walk step by step in obedience. I will be kept in perfect peace this day because I keep my mind stayed on You, today.”
If we confront the trials and burdens thus in detail, it is easier to live victoriously; and if you should die tomorrow, you are best prepared by walking in the Spirit today, and faithfully discharging the duties of today.—Virginia Brandt Berg4
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Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.—Mother Teresa
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Every second is of infinite value.—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.—Mary Jean Iron
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The future is always beginning now.—Mark Strand
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One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon—instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.—Dale Carnegie
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The big moments are the daily, tiny moments of courage and forgiveness and hope that we grab on to and extend to one another.
Today is your big moment. Moments, really. The life you’ve been waiting for is happening all around you. The scene unfolding right outside your window is worth more than the most beautiful painting, and the crackers and peanut butter that you’re having for lunch on the coffee table are as profound, in their own way, as the Last Supper. This is it. This is life in all its glory, swirling and unfolding around us, disguised as pedantic, pedestrian non-events. But pull off the mask and you will find your life, waiting to be made, chosen, woven, crafted.
You have stories worth telling, memories worth remembering, dreams worth working toward, a body worth feeding, a soul worth tending, and beyond that, the God of the universe dwells within you, the true culmination of super and natural.
You are more than dust and bones.
You are spirit and power and image of God.
And you have been given Today.—Shauna Niequist5
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Do not count the days; make the days count.—Muhammad Ali
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At the end of your life, you will never regret not having passed one more test, not winning one more verdict, or not closing one more deal. You will regret time not spent with a husband, a friend, a child, or a parent.—Barbara Bush
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For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin—real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.—Alfred D. Souza
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Do not let making a living prevent you from making a life.—John R. Wooden
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Another fresh new year is here…
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!
This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest…
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!
I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!
—William Arthur Ward
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I count life just the stuff to try the soul’s strength on.—Robert Browning
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Resolve to make at least one person happy every day, and then in ten years you may have made three thousand, six hundred and fifty persons happy, or brightened a small town by your contribution to the fund of general enjoyment.—Sydney Smith
Published on Anchor January 2013. Read by Simon Peterson.
Music by Michael Dooley.
1 “Today,” Meditation Moments 49.
2 Life, the Truth, and Being Free(A Better Today Publishing, 2009).
3 Deuteronomy 33:25.
4 “Today,” Meditation Moments 49.
5 Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life (Zondervan, 2010).
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