On October 11, 1996, Rick Davis and I got married after a long courtship, and we moved into the house we still live in on the east side of Franklin. Our house sits on a ½ acre corner lot in a quiet established neighborhood. We love our home.

The first morning we woke up there together, after a short honeymoon, I went straight to the kitchen for coffee. We had two households to join into one and we had a U-Haul in the driveway ready to go!

On this very busy morning, I glanced out the kitchen window as I put my empty cup in the sink, and I stopped in my tracks. Tears of gratitude streamed down my face as I stood overlooking my yard full of grass and mature trees absolutely brimming with brilliant fall colors.

After 3 years of dating and burning up the pavement between his house in Greenwood and my tiny apartment in Franklin, we woke up together in our forever home. Frankly, I had been a little fearful of what joining our two households would be like. But that first morning in OUR home, looking at what God had given me, I realized that I had nothing to fear. I was where God had led me with the man He had carefully chosen for me. I didn’t have to look behind me. And the future I had dreamt of was here! TODAY was here!

I still begin almost every day looking out that window at “today” with a coffee cup in my hand. Sometimes, I’m standing there when Rick leaves for work, and he usually asks what I’m looking at. I always answer, “Just looking out my window being grateful.”

I KNOW that after 27+ years, the trees are taller. I KNOW the neighbors built a new garage. I KNOW we had to cut down a couple of trees. I KNOW we built a pergola and made some other upgrades. But somehow, when I look out that window, all I see is TODAY.

Living in the present moment is very hard for me if I’m honest. I’m a go getter! Let’s get “this” done and move on to “that.” Or I can find myself spending time lamenting something in the past. BOTH STEAL TODAY! We have a known quantity of yesterdays. We have a very unknown quantity of tomorrows. But when we just stay in today, we can TREASURE every single moment. We can just let today be today.

Some todays are really hard from start to finish. Some todays are easy and peace-filled like a summer day at the beach! Some todays are happy and some are sad. But when today is just today, the bad today will end. And tomorrow, if it is God’s will, we get a brand new “today.”

Have you noticed how worrying about tomorrow can make your stomach hurt? When you can’t see the outcome of your decisions, your diagnosis, or your choices, that’s when anxiety can consume you.

When you find yourself concerned with an unknown outcome, it’s a sign of trusting God when you walk away from that worry. Easier said than done, I know. But we either trust God and His holy word or we don’t. It’s a choice we make every time we are consumed with anxiety over something in the “tomorrows” of life that we ultimately have no control over.

Is Jesus the author of anxiety? He isn’t. He wants you to have an abundant life. And in that abundance, worry has no place. Satan is the author of anxiousness about our future.

What about the regrets we have over yesterday? God commands His people in Isaiah 43:18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.”

It’s neither good to long for your former life OR to regret it. We can get “stuck” there making it impossible to walk forward. Every single day we get to choose whether to walk closer to God or walk farther away. Living in the past will keep you from moving closer.

Today, just breathe in all that this day has to offer. And if this day ends up not so good, just breathe it out and start all over tomorrow with a brand new today!