have the bad habit of skipping to the last pages of a book to
see how it ends while I am still in the middle of it. This habit annoyed
first my Mom, then my friends, and finally even my own daughter. Often
my impatience wouldn't be confined just to the books I read but also
to what they were reading as well. Finally one day my daughter told me
in exasperation, "Dad please just read a book one page at a time like
everyone else!"
At times I haven't limited this bad habit to
just books either. I have also tried to skip ahead in my own life and
figure out what to do months and even years from now instead of
embracing each day as God intended. I knew that the book of my life
wasn't done yet and that I had many pages left to go. Still, that
didn't stop me from trying to write the ending half-way through.
Time and again, I would foolishly jump ahead and try to solve every
conceivable problem before it happened so I could reach that storybook
happily ever after ending. Life, however, doesn't work like that. God
loves to surprise us, and you never know what new problem, change, or
opportunity each new day will bring.
God in His loving wisdom has
often had to remind me to relax, slow down and find His love and joy in
each day. Recently when I found myself returning to that bad habit of
rushing ahead and living in the future again, I found His truth coming
from the lips of a special soul who gently told me I needed to "live one
day at a time." When I heard those words I smiled, turned the book of my
life back to the right page, and thanked God for today.
There is
no skipping ahead in the book of life. Each of us has to live it one
page and one day at a time. Each of us has to have faith in God to help
us to write it line by line and moment by moment. Each of us has to
trust that our Heavenly Father will bring our story to its perfect end.
Joseph J. Mazzella
One Page at a Time
Today's Bible Verse:
"Slow down. Take a deep breath. What's the hurry? Why wear
yourself out? Just what are you after anyway?" (Jer. 2:25 The Message)
One Page at a Time
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