Life is made up of moments. Some are good, some not so great, and some we remember very little of.
Some moments slip into the past and make little impact on the way we live the rest of our lives, and other moments define our future and change our lives.
After a particularly difficult day recently I was thinking about how we often want our whole day to be great, with not a single moment of mishap, disagreement, difficulty or time when we just wanted to go back to bed and start the day again. But in real life you soon discover that the mindset that every moment in our day has to be awesome is not very realistic; especially when we live around, or with other people.
Not every moment is great. Sometimes there can be downright awful moments in our life; but the thing is, all things pass, and these moments will pass too.
I’ve learnt that to keep it all in perspective God wants us to focus on the moments we want to remember, the good ones that we hold onto at the end of the day, or the month or the year.
This week I had a reminder that we can’t lump our whole day in the good or bad pile because some moments in our day were great, and some were terrible. We have to take each moment and value it for what it’s worth. If some moments were terrible, then we can give them over to God and ask Him to lift the burden of them, and then focus on one of the better moments in our day.
To expect that everything is always going to be exactly how we want it, being absolutely perfect, with no upsets, or messing with our plans, just sets us up for failure, disappointment and angst. It’s just not practical to expect and require that every single moment in our day is going to be perfection. Actually sometimes the less than perfect moments are the one’s we learn the most from, and that God uses to bring people together, or uses to pleasantly surprise us in some way.
When we travelled to Europe a few years ago with five of our children we had a series of unexpected moments, which didn’t go to plan. I fainted on a London train as we were organising to pick up our vehicle to take us to the Lakes District in England. We had all our accommodation booked for the night, and we thought everything was organised. However the paramedic at the train station took one look at me and said, “I think you are all going to get stuck in weekend traffic for 5-6 hours; go to Wales instead.” So we set off to Wales, which was only two hours drive away. However on arrival we discovered every form of accommodation was booked out for the night, and we literally had nowhere to sleep for the night. Not a great moment! Left with no alternative we chose to sleep all seven of us in the car, or should I say small bus.
If you ask our children today what moments they remember from our trip they would say their night in the car was a highlight. They will all start laughing, and retelling their side of the story, and who sleeps weird, and who doesn’t. Our eldest son Ben will declare the loudest that he slept in the boot!
Through our night in the car however, a lot of squabbling about who had to share a room with whom was sorted out, and a new appreciation for a comfy bed was developed. Perspective and thankfulness is a brilliant thing, and it’s in these memorable moments; even when things don’t go to plan, that we discover them.
The bible says to give thanks in everything, and in every moment. That doesn’t mean we thank God for the terrible moments, and see them as something He has sent us. It instead means that IN everything we give thanks that He is in control. That He can and will turn things around for us, and to never let go of our confidence in His love and goodness towards us.
“In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.“ (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
We may not remember whole days of our life, but we do remember moments. And I’m learning that we shouldn’t write off a day just because there are a few bad moments. God is phenomenal at making all things work together for our good, and it’s wisdom for us to stop, breathe and trust Him to make everything all right. Some moments we may need to leave with Jesus to fix, and others we can just sit back and enjoy. Either way, let’s look to love the gift of each moment we have been given, and trust God with them all.
“Life is made up of moments. Moments create days, days create months, months create years, and years create life. So enjoy the moments!”
Prayer: Lord thank you that you have my life in your hands, and that with you everything is going to be all right. Help me to enjoy the great moments in my day, and to stop and be thankful for them. When not so great moments occur, please also help me to give them over to you, so that you can help me through. In Jesus Name Amen.
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