Yesterday…

I’m doing a writing challenge from the website of my friend, Patty. It’s a weekly challenge and it’s called “a2z.” This week’s challenge: Write something beginning with the letter “Y” … Hmm. This is harder than it sounds. Yellow? No. Yummy? Hm, I’m hungry. No. Stay focused! Yesterday I could have thought of a hundred things. Oh wait! There it is! Yesterday!

The Beatles did a song called “Yesterday.” In fact the first line of the song goes, “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it seems as though they’re here to stay. Oh I believe in yesterday.”

Apparently Paul McCartney would rather have had his yesterday, because he thought it was better back there than it was where he was at that moment (according to the song). But the Apostle Paul (totally different dude), was choosing to forget yesterday.

“Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it (spiritual maturity). But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead…” (Philippians 3:13 HCSB)

Wedding Day – June 18, 1983

There are some things in my “yesterday” that I would simply like to forget. But there are other things that I would love to hold onto forever: 

My beautiful kids: Rachel, Katie, & Logan (Logan is standing)

My wedding day. My babies’ first steps. The goofy times I’ve had with each of my kids. The birth of each of my grandbabies, just to name a few… Good thing we took pictures.

Precious Grandsons: Abraham & Radley (They are cousins, not brothers)

I guess it’s good to remember the good things, the funny things, and the things that make you smile. But we also need to remember to let go of the yesterdays that were not so good. We need to focus on what lies ahead, because it can only get better. In verse 14, Paul says, “I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.” 



We will never be perfect while we’re still on this earth. That’s why it’s important to stay focused on the things ahead. Practice and work, just like an athlete practices and works for his goal. At the end of the race, he is called forward to receive his prize. And if we stay focused on Jesus, our yesterday won’t matter and one day we’ll be called forward to receive our prize, too. The Beatles may have believed in yesterday…but I believe in eternity.