Sometimes this is so very hard to do. Sometimes we don’t want to be where we are right now. Sometimes we don’t want to let go of the past. Sometimes we are afraid to hope for the future.
All we truly have is ‘now’. The past cannot be changed or altered. The future remains unseen. Now is what we have. We can fight it or accept it.
Accepting does not mean being happy with it. (Although if we are it’s a bonus!) Accepting does not mean that we can’t, or should not, hope for something more.
Accepting means that we accept where we are… we accept the path we have taken has led us to where we are now. We let go of what is holding us back from the past and we have faith in what can be.
I live in Ontario, Canada. As I am writing this our province is in the midst of a 3rd wave of COVID. We are under a stay-at-home-order that has just been extended yet again. I don’t like it. I miss my family. I miss my grandchildren incredibly. There is an ache inside of me that longs to hold them and play with them. I want to feel their sweet little faces pressed up against mine. I want to hug my children. And right now I can’t.
But I have learned that allowing bitterness to grow does nothing to benefit my emotional well being. I have to focus on what ‘is’… I have a family who loves me despite our physical distance. I can engage with my grandchildren through video chats. Love is not diminished by not being together.
When the negative feelings start to creep in, I turn my focus to the positive things that have happened as a result of COVID. Each of us has a different ‘silver lining’ to focus on… for me it is time to spend working on creative projects, gardening, learning new skills. In part this was brought about through coming to a ‘hard stop’ brought on by a stress related illness that made me take a deep look at my emotional and mental well being. I had to choose to accept where I am right now, to let go of what was, and to have faith in what will be.
Whether we are faced with a pandemic or not, there will always be a “COVID” of some sort in our lives to challenge and test us. Some of them will be less serious than COVID and some will be far more challenging. We can’t control these events, but we can always choose how we react to them and how we go through them.
What if our prayer for today was this…
“Lord, help me to accept where I am in life right now, let me not linger in the past or hold on to things that I need to let go of… take my failures, my hurts, my regrets and toss them in to the sea. Give me faith Lord, to hope for tomorrow… to trust in your plan for me and to believe that I can become the person you designed and created me to be.”
Amen
Download the free journal page and write out your thoughts on where you are in life right now… can you easily accept your current life and situation? is there something from your past that you are having a hard time releasing? Can you commit to letting it go and letting it be? What are your hopes for the future? Write out an statement of faith in what will be.
Searching for more inspiration?
We offer 31 Days of Inspirations and Prayers in 5 different design options and two different formats. There are printable quote cards and prayers of encouragement as well as printable journal sets. These sets were created to provide encouragement and hope to anyone who is going through a time of change, loss or struggle. You can access the full printable sets by clicking on any of the photos below.
Each set contains 31 different inspirational quotes and prayers of encouragement. You just need to choose the design and format that speaks to you.
