By: Latoya Hammond
Have you ever been reading a really good book and wanted to get right to the end and see how it all turned out? Each paragraph is filled with questions, plot twists and maybe even an emotional roller coaster or two and you just have to know how it ends! But instead, you decide to embrace every line allowing yourself to see how things played out. This is sometimes how life can be. Each day is like the pages in a book. It’s our story being written in real time and, if you’re anything like me, you just want to jump to the end and see how it all plays out. If you hear what I’m saying, then Girl, I GOTT U!
You see I have a tendency to want situations to be over as soon as they start. Especially when my emotions are being challenged. My therapist labeled this my control issues. To be honest I never thought about it that way. At the beginning of my separation I was full of so much uncertainty. Would we get back together? Would I ever be loved again? Would anyone want me? Would I ever be told I was beautiful again? I was “ready” for the next chapter! For love, for a new life. In reality, I was not wanting to feel all the pain that came along with what I was going through. I wanted it to be over and I wanted to begin the next chapter in my life. The way I saw it, moving on was going to make me feel better faster.
In order to find peace in the present, you have to allow yourself to experience all that happens in the present. In every moment you have to feel your feelings. When you are focused on moving through the present, without acknowledging what is taking place you also miss out on your own growth and even the good things that are going on in your life. Just because you are going through a painful or a hard and challenging situation doesn’t mean that every moment is that. There is good that can be found. On this journey of experiencing the end of my marriage I was going to have to feel it all and learn from it all in order to grow and be ready for the next chapter. What I learned is that God is already in the next chapter!
“Be strong. Take courage. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t give them a second thought because God, your God, is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6).
God encourages us to be courageous and know that he is moving ahead of us and is with us in the present and will not let us down! He has worked our beginning from the end. Remain in the present God is there with you. You do not have to get ahead of him. When we try to get ahead of God that is when we open the door for stress, worry and anxiety and not the peace he provides.
My story has been written and so has yours! God knows exactly what I will need to go through in order for me to become who I need to be for the plans he has for my life. Jeremiah 29:11 says that he knows the plans that he has for us and it is not to harm us but to bring us to an expected end. The next chapter is indeed waiting for us but God has not told us to turn the page yet. Enjoy every period, exclamation point, comma, and colon this present chapter has to offer. Being able to be content and accept where God has you now is important to experiencing peace in the present.
When you can find peace in God’s presence it invites peace into your present. The bible says, to keep your mind(will , emotions, thoughts) on him and He will keep us in perfect peace.
“You will keep in perfect and constant peace the one whose mind is steadfast [that is, committed and focused on You—in both inclination and character], Because he trusts and takes refuge in You [with hope and confident expectation].” Isaiah23:3
Finding peace in the present takes patience. Over the past year I have had to face my control issues and it has been hard to practice patience in the present. When we want to know what is going to happen and what the results will be, we are less focused on the process and only see the goal of the end result. Part of the purpose is to learn patience and be present in the moment. This allows you to trust God’s power and provision no matter what you are faced with! Having a reliance on God says that I choose to trust HIM no matter what!!!