Have you ever worn someone else’s prescription glasses before and found the vision clarity to be super fuzzy?? Now, I know that sometimes you can borrow a friend’s pair of glasses and they will work out “ok” for a little while,  but most of the time their prescription will hurt your eyes because the balance of vision is specific to each individual person.

That is how the balance of the NOW and LATER (even the PAST) is for people-it is individual. What works for me is not necessarily what is going to work for you.

In Part 1, we discussed viewing life with a balanced perspective of the present and the future, so I guess we need to discuss what happens if you only think about the past.

  What would happen if the balance of thinking shifted to focusing on “the way things USED to be” for the greater majority of life perspective?

I think it would be like not wearing my corrected lenses at all.

My vision will ultimately worsen where I can no longer clearly see what is in front of me because of the constant eye strain harming my vision and, since I already struggle with seeing far away as it is,  I certainly won’t be able to see what is ahead of me with any improvement…

Sometimes, unfortunately, the way things used to be was actually BETTER than how things are…or it seemed like it anyhow. Mom and Dad may have been married still back then. Grandma or Grandpa was still alive. Your spouse  had a better paying job or a job that kept them from traveling as often as they are. You “fit in” better when you were at a certain age or had more friends than you seem to have now. You weren’t the current dress size you are now. Your child did not have addiction issues or bullying issues then.

Who wouldn’t want to think about better times? I get it, trust me.

To challenge our thought process let’s think about a car…the front wind shield is huge as is the back window-right? But the rearview mirror is pretty small, isn’t it?

For those that drive we know that it is not in our best interest to back up while looking forward, correct? Those of us who do not have a car with one of those handy little cameras know we  should  turn our heads around and use our mirrors.

So, to move backward (into the past so to speak) we need to focus on what is behind us, right?

To MOVE FORWARD, however, you need to look FORWARD with only glances back in the mirror or over your shoulder.

Follow me?

If we look only backward into our past, no matter how good or bad it was, we will ultimately begin moving backwards directionally…

As an RN, I tell my post anesthesia patients to keep their eyes on where they want to go because their body will follow wherever they are looking. If they look down to their feet, which is the normal response, they will ultimately fall. But, if they keep their eyes up on the doorway or the path in front of them they will reach their destination.

In this case of living in the “remember when’s” of life,  we won’t mature, we won’t grow, we won’t adapt, and we won’t change as the scenery changes around us.

The harsh reality of life is that we will never be able to redo our past or UNDO our past so to focus on it ONLY is not healthy…

We need to look forward to move forward into the future. We have to be in the NOW while knowing the LATER is coming.

The truth may be that your past may be extremely significant to who you have become today…so glancing at it more frequently will be important for you to move forward.

However, your past may be extremely negative to who you are today (sometimes we have ugliness in our lives that looks like abuse, addiction, affairs, or bullying)…glancing at it less often may be important for you to move forward.

As I wrote above,  the balance of the NOW and LATER (even the PAST) is unique to the individual.

 My reality tells me that I am older than some of you, so I naturally have more experiences to recall for analogies. Also, God is really using my past experiences to encourage other people so I find I am looking into my “rear view mirror” a lot lately. Thankfully, He has brought me far enough along His path of peace that I am not harmed by my past memories any longer so the time spent in reflection is uncomfortable but not damaging.

Depending on what God calls you to do in service to Him with your life skills will also determine how forward thinking you need to be.  As a nurse, I think about “steps down the road” where health is concerned. If you are asthmatic and it is hot outside, I think ahead about the potential for an asthma attack. A teacher will be focused similarly in that he/she builds on each lesson with a focus to reach the end goal of learning at the end of each semester.

Ironically, God also tends to keep certain things in our lives more clouded than an algorithm can neatly and efficiently solve. That cloudy veil tends to be about our future. The purpose of that, in case you wondered, is SO WE TRUST IN HIM AND NOT ON OUR OWN PLANS….

With His call on my life into ministry, God has me focusing totally on the here and NOW. I am a totally normal person so I want to know what I will do and when I will do it! He constantly pulls me back to whatever it is I am to do today– like teach, raise my children, be a supportive wife,  study His Word, write, and continue my job as an RN. All the while Christ is using and restoring every part of my past to teach others in my present and prepare me for my future in further service to Him.

In the meantime, here are some good things to remember:

          Romans 8:28 God uses ALL things for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. (It is a conditional scripture- we need to love God for Him to be able to use all our good, bad, and ugly for HIS kind of good).

Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord determines His steps. (We have a choice to make in whether we follow what steps the Lord has for us…do we follow His plan for our future or go our own way?)

Ecclesiastes 7:10 Do not say “why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions. (Do we really know if they were any better anyhow? It all depends on what we choose to remember and how we choose to remember it.)

Ecclesiastes 11:4 If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.(Sometimes we need to do things because it is the right thing to do whether we “feel” like it or not).

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. (This does not leave any room for excuses does it?)

Ultimately, my prayer is