Past, Present, or Future?

My wonderful Ya Da's and I have been reading The Shack this summer. Last night we discussed a question brought up in the book...where do you spend most of your time in your mind, in your imagination: in the present, in the past, or in the future? God intends us to live in the present, however we tend to spend very little time there.

For me, I would say I draw much of my happiness from the past. Through all the great memories that have been made along the way and all the wonderful people I have been blessed by knowing. Not there is no happiness in the present, I just tend not to live in the present so maybe I am not experiencing life as fully as I could if I spent a little more time in the present.

Spending time in the future is not so good for me. I tend to be a worrier and so I ponder the future and spend too much time in fear. I need to trust in God more and remember that there is a plan (one that I do not control - thankfully). I wonder if I am sabotaging the present when I spend time worrying about the future? And not only that, it's not all negative when I am in the future. I also tend to look forward to things that are yet to be...a visit from family, a holiday, time with friends. Sometimes the things I look forward to are so far away that I don't really live to my full potential in the present because I'm so hung up with getting to the "good stuff", possibly missing good stuff right where I am at?

This, I thought, was a very good discussion topic. As for me, I am going to work on living more in the present than I currently do. I am sure this will be difficult because I don't really like were life has me right now...is that my own doing because I'm not really living in the now?? And I have some up coming visits that I am REALLY looking forward to...my mom and aunt next week and then my mother and father-in-law along with my two nephews that I have not seen since leaving Michigan in a couple more weeks. I will definitely work on living in the present while they are here (to be sure I have great stuff to remember when I'm spending time in the past later on, he he)