Looking back, I wish that I was more aware of all the possibilities before me. I wish I knew what determination and perseverance could have gotten me.
Listening the the CES fireside January 9, 2011 from Elder D. Todd Christofferson entitled “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”, really got me thinking.
“Thoughtful planning and preparation are key to a rewarding future, but we do not live in the future—we live in the present. It is day by day that we work out our plans for the future; it is day by day that we achieve our goals.”
This was such a nice thing to hear at the beginning of a semester. At the beginning of a new year. When plans are being made, when resolutions are created.
Disappointment in self occurs when those resolutions are not kept.
I just have to think about one day at a time.
Today.
That’s all I have to worry about.
Today,
I need to be the best I can.
I can accomplish one day.
“It is the accumulation of many days well-lived that adds up to a full life and a saintly person.”
Each day I can turn to my Father in Heaven.
Each day I can trust Him to help me through the day.
“With no other recourse, more than once I fell down before my Heavenly Father begging in tears for His help. And He did help. Sometimes it was nothing more than a sense of peace, a feeling of assurance that things would work out. I might not see how or what the path would be, but He gave me to know that, directly or indirectly, He would open a way. Circumstances might change, a new and helpful idea might come to mind, some unanticipated income or other resource might appear at just the right time. Somehow there was a resolution.”
When I am struggling and facing a problem, I see it long term and I think that there is no way that I can overcome this. It is too large. And sometimes, I just give up.
“Asking God for our daily bread, rather than our weekly, monthly, or yearly bread, is also a way to focus us on the smaller, more manageable bits of a problem. To deal with something very big, we may need to work at it in small, daily bites. Sometimes all we can handle is one day (or even just part of one day) at a time.”
I was relieved when I heard such a thing.
I know I can get through just one day.
Don’t worry about tomorrow, it’ll take care of itself.
“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself” (Matthew 6:34).
“To repent, improve, and eventually reach ‘the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ’ (Ephesians 4:13), as Paul expressed it, is a step-by-step process. Incorporating new and wholesome habits into our character or overcoming bad habits or addictions most often means an effort today followed by another tomorrow, and then another, perhaps for many days, even months and years, until victory is achieved. But we can do it because we can appeal to God for our daily bread, for the help we need each day.”
People can change.
It may be a struggle to be overcome day-by-day, or hour-by-hour, or even minute-by-minute, but it can be overcome.
We can get through it.
Especially with His help.
“In reality, there aren’t very many things in a day that are totally without significance. Even the mundane and repetitious can be tiny but significant building blocks that in time establish the discipline and character and order needed to realize our plans and dreams.”
This is what I should have realized years and years ago.
But since I only learned it now I will do the best I can to make each day worth something.
It brings new meaning to Doctrine and Covenants 60:13 “Thou shalt not idle away thy time, neither shalt thou bury thy talent that it may not be known.”
Spend your time wisely and you’ll develop and discover skills that would become a great benefit to you later in life.
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