DON’T KILL TODAY with YESTERDAY!

Ron Bainbridge
Feb 13, 2020
3 min read

Today’s Message of Encouragement from

Discovering A BETTER LIFE MINISTRIES

https://abl-alb.wixsite.com/discoverabetterlife

(Stories of Real People, Real Events, Real Places)

And are dedicated to providing Spiritual FOOD FOR THOUGHT

TO HELP PEOPLE FIND HOPE THROUGH SHARING GOD’S

GRACE and LOVE

(Ron Bainbridge Editor) (February 13th, 2020)

DON’T KILL TODAY with YESTERDAY!

Friend, let me share with you a thought about not killing your today with yesterday. Perhaps that sounds like a play on words, but I think as I continue, you’ll understand what I’m trying to convey.

Many years ago, Ralph Aldo Emerson’s daughter was away from her home attending boarding school. In her correspondence with her famous father, she made it clear to him that she was brooding over a past mistake that had left her with a troubled conscience. Emerson wrote back to his daughter with the following words:

“Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; but get rid of them and forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, and you shall never encumber its potentialities and invitations with the dread of the past. You should not waste a moment of today on the rottenness of yesterday.”

Well friend, perhaps you, too, are living with a sense of failure and guilt, or an unhappy realization that you haven’t been the kind of person you ought to be. – Maybe your marriage, or partnership, is on the rocks because of your past blunders and failures. If so, you might be asking: “How can I get over my failures?” Or, “How can I forgive myself and begin all over again?”

It might be that you have observed other people who have stumbled and failed many times in their life, yet you’ve also seen these same people come to grips with their past and move ahead with the living of today with greater zest and vigour than ever before.

In the closing scene of Shakespeare’s play, “The Tempest”, Prospero says of Alonzo: “Let us not burden our remembrances with a heaviness that’s gone.”

Vivian Larramore gives similar advice in her poem, which she titled TODAY, where she said: “I’ve closed the door on yesterday, its sorrows and mistakes: And now I throw the key away to seek another room and furnish it with hope and smiles and every springtime bloom. I’ve closed the door on yesterday and thrown the key away! Tomorrow holds no fear for me, since I have found today.”

Friend, it’s foolish to cling to unresolved problems and difficulties from the past and to bring the burdens and worries about the future into today’s routine. And I say that, because our shoulders are just not broad or strong enough to carry the loads of more than one day at a time.

The truth is God doesn’t want you or me to live with terrible feelings of guilt. What He does want however is that you and I experience a radiant, victorious life. And it can be yours, if you are willing to accept His grace, His forgiveness, and His offer of eternal life. You see, God has great things in store for you and me, and all we need do in order to receive His rich rewards, is to accept His forgiveness, which He so freely offers through Jesus Christ.

Perhaps, right now, you are experiencing some difficulty in overcoming the guilt of past failures, which may have filled your life with fear and uncertainty? If so, we believe we can help you. If you would like to know more about how you can progress from fear to forgiveness, we would love to share with you two booklets titled “Accepting Forgiveness” and “TOMORROW CAN BE BETTER”

To receive your complimentary copies of “Accepting Forgiveness” and “TOMORROW CAN BE BETTER,” Please write to Discovering A BETTER LIFE, P.O. Box 1540, Albany Western Australia 6331.