Tomorrow is Another Day!

Well, today is yesterday's tomorrow.  It's a new day.  The sun is shining, and I'm feeling more optimistic about the day.  If you read yesterday's post, you will know that I am looking for more substance in my days.  So, I've decided to start a personal Bible study.  It's geared toward new Christians, but I think anyone can benefit from it.  I just wanted to acknowledge that I am following through with my quest to do something more worthwhile with my time.

Past, present, or future?  Where would you choose to live if you had the choice?  This is a pretty easy question for me.  I don't have the right answer, but it's an honest one.  If I could, I would rewind the clock to somewhere around 1985 in a heartbeat.  It is mind boggling for me to think that it's been 25 years ago.  I would have been in the second half of my fourth grade year.  My teacher, Mr. Bridges, would be teaching us that 6X7 is 42.  Our free time in class was spent playing eraser tag.  Michael Jackson's Thriller album was still riding high.  It's not that I particularly loved this specific year.  I just would like a do over from about this point on.  

There are so many changes I'd make if I could.  I was terrified of competition.  I hated sports that were competitive.  I enjoyed the actual game, just not the pressure.  I did manage to enjoy volleyball, cheerleading, and track in my middle school years.  I just wish I hadn't worried so much about messing up.  This is just one lesson I'd teach myself if I could go back.  

I would teach the younger me to be more considerate of the less fortunate kids in my school.  As an adult, I have looked back at certain kids that I went to school with.  They were the so-called "rejects."  I wasn't really mean to them.  I just wasn't really nice to them.  They were usually withdrawn, a little unstable, and unclean.  As a kid, that's all I saw.  Today, I realize that school was a safe haven for these kids.  They most likely loved the escape from the hell that was their home life.  How sad.  Why don't we see this in others when we're twelve?  

An all important lesson I would convey to myself at about age thirteen is to not focus so much energy on boys, or more specifically, one boy.  Friends are much more important than any boy.  So much energy is wasted on trying to be the girl a boy will like.  Just be yourself.  Don't judge yourself based on what a boy sees in you.  

Lastly, I would heed the advice a dear friend tried to give me in my teens.  She used to always say, "You're young for a little while.  You're married forever."  Oh how true that is.  I'm not saying that I regret marrying my Reuben.  I just wish I hadn't been in such a hurry to grow up.  What a priceless lesson this is!

These are just a few lessons I could benefit from if given a second chance.  What would you tell the younger you if you could have a do over?  Or would you choose to live in the present?  Is your reality so wonderful that you wouldn't change a thing?  I would caution anyone wishing to live in the future.  Time flies by so quickly.  Why be in a hurry?  Don't focus so much on your future that you forget to enjoy today.