I’ve never been one to live in the “glory days” of high school.
I didn’t play any sports, and was only talented in studying, so I never got stuck in the glow of a life lived well once upon a time. I had friends, but was never part of the popular crowd. I had a “pretty face” but was always somewhat overweight (in a time when most high school girls weren’t).
High school was what it was and nothing more for me. I had good days and bad days and mostly in between days. But I never once thought I was living in my “best days”. I was embarrassed about the eighties that had just ended and cringed to think of myself as a junior higher with bad bangs and multiple zippers in my jeans. I did mathematical calculations in my head about the future, wondering how many years away I was from…anything else but now. I was only fifteen when I would fantasize about getting married in five years. At 17 I thought I would arrive when I turned 25, a seemingly perfect age in my mind.
Having gotten married at 21 and then eventually reaching 25 and speeding right on past it, I am beginning to understand that every season in my life has been my “best days”.
Cold summer vacations in the mountains with my family when I was too young to venture off into the woods by myself (I felt like a tortured soul in need of open space to think and write my poetry). These were my best days.
My grandfather dying when I was 9 and me not grieving properly (and still not understanding why). These were my best days.
My new mothering hours, blind from sleeplessness and deaf from a screaming infant, those were my best days.
A marriage, completely destroyed and then stitched lovingly back together by my Savior’s hands. Those were my best (and worst) days.
Today my days are filled with a second grader’s incessant questions about science and God and the universe and with her little sister’s leftover terrible-two tantrums (even though she’s three). Smudgy fingerprints on my clean windows. Cheerios fastened, glued, rooted to my kitchen tile. A roving pile of clean laundry that is never really all folded: from my bed to the floor to the chair and back to the bed. Sippy cups, fish crackers, half eaten grilled cheese sandwiches. Cursing because I’ve stepped the arch of my foot on a mini lego in the dark. These are my best days.
I understand now that I am always living in my best days.
Tragedy, sin, death, heartache equally paired with joy and peace — all of these are what makes up our lives. God crafts each day for me, each season in my life with my best interest in mind. My life, even if it is filled with difficulty, is at its peak of the best of the best because He has created me for today.
If He’s built today for me and it is full of heartache and stress, then I must (I have to) rest in knowing that it is the best thing for me. It is my best day.
If I am always living in the day that God has created specifically for me, then the best days of my life follow me. I know that whenever I am, it is the best time.
The difference, however, between surviving through a terrific tragedy and allowing it to change me is only in the realization. If I realize that now, today, this pain is for my good, the pain won’t go away, but the days, they will be the best ones of my life.
So glory days for me? Not hardly. But the best days, I’ve always had those. And today, I’m living in them.
ARE YOU LIVING IN YOURS?
Tags: glory days, high school, Hope, the best days of my life, tragedy
This is a very difficult time for me and for my family. And yet my children remind me that life goes on anyway. I don’t want to miss their kindergarten and third grade year because I was blinded by the pain of my circumstances. And I’ve also realized that I want to feel the pain. Not wallow in it, but truly feel every emotion and learn from these days and not waste a minute of the good or the bad.
These are my best days. I just hadn’t thought of them that way until you mentioned it. Thank you.
This is not a dress rehearsal. We are live, on stage as you say, in all our glory.
No apprentice people around here either. That’s because skill and perfection isn’t His desire …. it’s relationship.
I try to live in the now. Sometimes I find I’m living from event to event…or at least that’s what my husband says. I try to focus on right now because once it’s gone, it’s gone.
Thanks for the reminder.
We always say “If this is the worst thing that can happen to me, than it is a pretty good day.” Meaning, learning to be thankful and joyful in every situation that comes our way. Something that took a long time to learn, but really grew as we learned to trust God more and more not to deliver FROM trials but to teach us and deliver us THROUGH those trials. Which made all the rest of the moments even more joyful.
Great post!
these really are the best days…..aren’t they ?
everyday when I talk to my dad and ask “how are you” he responds with “well, I woke up, so today must be a good day” and then I can feel the smile on his face and I know that all is right with the world….
They have to be the best days…look around, all around …each one of us is so lucky. Glory days, back in the day….former days….today is all that matters.
What a great post. I love your perspective. Thank you for sharing!
Beautiful! And the perfect entry to read before the weekend! I hope you have a good one. I’m living my best days as a single mother of a 3 year old. Some days I think I’m going to die, but I never, ever think they are my worst days. This time in my life, God has made me dig deep to find out who I am. i kind of like me, afterall. Thanks for such great words….
I like this! I always think back on different ages, high school, college, 20′s (and now in the early 30′s). I had great times all throughout, and probably at the time I would also say this was the best time. But, you are right. They are all the best of times for completely different reasons. And all special times as well
TRUTH! Thanks for this! It is a wonderful, needed reminder. I think I sell God short sometimes…like He sleeps sometimes in the details…like He doesn’t really care about every single minute…just the big picture. Not true! He cares about every millisecond of my life and everyday is “such a time as this”.
they are glory days for Him… all of these “best days,” written and wonder-fully woven together for His BIG GLORY!
yes, i finally get it, that the every day is (and should be) included in my “best days.”
beautiful words.
WOW-What wisdom! and truth. I love this post-I will be chewing on this one for awhile. Thank you so much……
This is so true. I love the idea of being concerned with the present and eternity – and letting the rest be of less concern.
“I believe [God] wants [people] to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself, and to that point of time which they call the Present. For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity.” – C.S. Lewis
I really appreciate this blog – it’s the only one I have ever subscribed to!
This is great Sarah! We need to choose to be OBEDIENT today! God will take care of tomorrow!
Love,
Traci
I heard a speaker once say, “There are no longer good days and bad days…. there are only days of grace.” “There will be days where you will be given the grace to ENDURE what’s going on around you. “And there will be days where you will be given the grace to ENJOY what’s going on around you.” “But from here on out, there are only days of grace.” Everyday is a day of grace.
Days of grace… I love it.
Just started reading your blog not long ago and have been really encouraged by your honesty and transparency. This article really blessed me and gave me a new perspective today. Thanks!
Beautiful post, Sarah. It dovetails perfectly with something I’ve been thinking about lately. (Post coming soon, I hope.)
It’s really a very deep God-truth, in my opinion. Every day — no matter the circumstances — is a chance for joy, a chance to glorify God, a chance to love. Today is the best day, because it’s what we hold in our hands right now.
great post… and very true!
yes ma’am, i believe i am.
i think as i quickly edge up on the big 4-0 i have been looking at each moment a lot differently. not as a moment to rush thru. or a day i hope will end quickly.
this morning as i prayed with my kids before they went off to school we thanked God for the promise of today. and confessed that we know tomorrow is no guarantee. so…help us, TODAY, to live on purpose. live like we mean it. and actually we said, “make it the best day yet…for Him”
beautiful post, sarah
thank you!
no glory days in high school either! i was so glad to graduate and never looked back!
i have learned, am still learning, to enjoy the little everyday things in life today because, not only are they going by so fast, and i have no guarantee i will experience any tomorrow, but, if these are not the best days today, they won’t be tomorrow either!
today is the best day!
Very, very insightful, Sarah. I never thought about it like that but yes, these are the best days because no matter what happens we rest in the knowledge that we are His. I wear a necklace that once belonged to my mother – my Dad gave it to me after she died. It is c circle that has a cross on one side and a compass on the other. I need to remind myself that this is not just jewelry, that the direction of my life should always begin and end with the cross.
Thank you for your post.
Every day I have to purpose to not wish it away to get to something “better”. Every day I have to do that, on purpose. I want to live without regrets – especially over things that I have the power to change. My perspective is my responsibility.
Thanks for the reminder today… difficult does not mean bad, and easy does not equal better. I need to that reminder often.
Great post. My best days I beleive are now. I’ve come back to Him ater a long absence (over 10 yrs). I cant believe how long its taken me to come back, to be so utterly broken and say I cant do it. Not alone. Here I am now sifting thru my marriage and trusting God, only God. I know he’ll see me through, whatever the outcome. Ive never been so” awake”. These are my best days, and I know I must live through and learn from them.
Great post, Sarah. Not living with regret isn’t easy to do. Realizing what season of life you are in and choosing to learn and live it, not just get through it is great wisdom. Great post.
I’m a big believer in “living in the moment.” The past is gone and we aren’t promised the future, so all we have is the present. Enjoy the gift of today!
But I’m curious … you say “God crafts each day for me, each season in my life with my best interest in mind. My life, even if it is filled with difficulty, is at its peak of the best of the best because He has created me for today.”
Are you saying that everything that happens God crafted? What about our free will and/or choice?
Thanks!
This is beautiful.
Most definitely. These are my BEST days. Pain and sorrow, joy and peace.
This is a wonderful way to remind me what Cindy Beall always says: “God never wastes a hurt”…instead – He turns into His very best for us. This is a difficult season in my life – both career wise and in my marriage…but I am reminded that because of HIS promises and because I am held in HIS palm, it IS my best day…and tomorrow will be too…
A friend once told me to always remember that this, right here, right now, the good moment, the bad moment, THIS will one day be part of the good ol’ days. Even the hardest, harshest times, when taken to the Cross, become so precious that we can end up looking back fondly…
Amen!
–Tim
http://www.timothydeanmills.com
This was a tough read today. Today I woke up with the feeling of wanting OUT of my situation, my marriage, right now. I have a private blog where I dump this stuff once in a while since I seem to have let my public blog go off to the wayside…. I just finished posting a terribly hard heart dump and then I remembered you and Chad, and came back to read. And this was a hard read. Because I don’t want today. And thinking that it passed through God first because in some way it is best for me…. hurts. a lot. I’m not disputing it, at all. I know you are right, but it’s hard to accept that right when everything feels so wrong. Thank you for posting this when you did because I need it this morning. ;o)
AMMMazing post! What a great word. I have always struggled with discontent in my heart for where I was in life. Your wisdom sheds such light, and I will re and read this post. It’s such good stuff, girl. You have such a gift.
I love this. I don’t like it when people say high school of college is “the best time of your life.” To me, that’s a sad thought. As if you graduate college and then it’s all downhill from there. To me, every season of life should be the best time, and I think you portrayed that beautifully in this post.
Thank you so much for writing this. These past few years and especially the last year have been really hard for me. I struggle with what I do not have and at the same time praise God for what I do have. It’s a constant flip flop. My heart grieves because I have no children, I selfishly long for more attention from my sweetie, and I pray to my Lord that I might crave more of Him. Just today I was angry and spewing venom in my head, crying over the years the locusts have eaten, knowing that I must live in the present and give God my tomorrows. He calmed me with music and words that brought praise and prayer to my lips. Much better than venom. And reading your entry this evening helps as well, to settle the calm back in me. Thank you for who you are and for allowing God to speak through you.
What a great reminder to cherish the now and what we have. Your high school experience sounds a lot like mine. Glad I’m not the only one with bad jr. high pics from the 80′s.
Sarah … I love this post. I can soo relate to your high school experience, you put that feeling into words so well. Thank you for sharing it.
Thank you for this post Sarah. It totally spoke to me today. In the midst of my craziest season when nothing is quite as I would like it to be, I keep looking ahead and looking forward to another time. Two months from now, when we have another baby, when I don’t have to work…and so on and so on… I need to remember to live in today- my best days.
Funny, I always thought you were part of the ‘in crowd’ in high school. And for what it’s worth, I wish I had applied myself to my studies … really, there’s no reason (other than procrastination, etc) that I couldn’t have been one of “the brilliant 7″. Note: To those who didn’t go to our high-school, we had 7 valedictorians (or was it 5 … the years are playing with my mind).