In the past few weeks, I've had a couple of conversations that had a common theme even though, at first glance, they seemed to be totally opposite from one another.
The first one was with my 26-year-old daughter who was struggling with looking ahead and trying to figure out where she is headed in her life. The other was with my sister (notice how nice I am...I didn't give her age!). She and her husband had been having serious conversations about when they can consider retiring now that the economy has tanked and totally changed their retirement plans.
As I thought about those conversations, I realized that, when boiled down to their bare bones, both conversations were concerned about the very same thing...what's going to happen in the future? If we're honest, who doesn't think about that and have some concerns?
When we're young, we want to make wise choices that will lead to happy, purposeful lives. As we get older, we also need our choices to be wise as we prepare for our "golden years." But it's so very hard because we don't know what will happen in the future. So we stress ourselves out trying to examine every conceivable scenario and make every possible contingency plan.
A few days after my conversation with my sister, I was reading the lesson on a daily calendar that I have that is written by Charles F. Stanley. It was so perfect; I had to call my sister and read it to her. Here's what it said:
"You cannot predict tomorrow. You cannot fully prepare for all of its contingencies. You cannot fully provide for all you'll need in your future. God not only can, He already has! God is never caught off-guard. He is never taken by surprise. He never comes up short. So you do not have to live with anxiety about the future. The peace-filled heart is the one that recognizes 'my times are in His hands.'"
I don't know about you, but that's an awfully good reminder for me!
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