Living in the Now

These past few weeks have been some of the longest weeks that I have gone through. I am so thankful that they are over, but also thankful for the many lessons that I have learned and experienced. Throughout these past few weeks, I was living for the future, and sometimes even living in the past. There were so many times where I questioned "what if I would have..." or "what am I going to do...". Looking back, these are things that I am not proud of. The mess that I created and that consumed my life is not something that I want to happen ever again. But isn't that what our lives are? Complete messes that we get ourselves into, and then God miraculously works things out for His glory? At the end of last week, I had someone tell me that even though things have calmed down, I needed to see how I could use this experience and grow from it. I was so focused on the mess itself that I ignored that it could be a lesson that I could learn from. Today I was reminded of this same truth. No matter what we are going through or what life is for us, God has a purpose and we can choose to live in His will and purpose, or we can choose to view it negatively and just strive to get by. I don't want to be that person. Instead of focusing on the mistakes that were made and the mess that I was in, I can choose to allow God to use that situation to open my eyes and learn from it. Right now, I want to live in the now and allow Him to work all things for His purpose. Here's to a new beginning and moving forward rather remaining stuck in the past.