Yesterday, today, and tomorrow

A friend’s recent Facebook status quote by her young son, “I was a good boy tomorrow” just cracked me up.  It also reminded me of a “tomorrow” story involving our oldest son.

Let me set the scenario – it is Christmas Eve. 

My son & I are staying the night with my parents (I was a divorced single mom at the time).  Christmas is an exciting time for a three-year-old, so I had to do the typical parent line.  “Santa won’t come if you are awake.  You need to go to sleep so Santa will come and leave your presents.  Christmas is Tomorrow.”  Like the obedient little boy he was, he trotted off to bed, because he wanted those Christmas presents to be delivered.

Christmas morning that child slept in! 

When he finally woke up he went down to the kitchen to have breakfast, like any other day.  My father asked him if he wanted to go into the living room. So, they meandered that way.  I have a picture of the two of them talking in the doorway with the filled stockings hanging on the wall, just out of sight.

My dad asked: “Don’t you want to see your presents?  It’s Christmas morning.”  My son said:  “No it isn’t, Christmas is tomorrow.”  Chuckle.  We finally convinced him it was Christmas, and the expected chaos began.

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow

can be a tough concept for a young child to grasp. 

Let’s face it, yesterday, today, and tomorrow can sometimes be a tough concept for adults to grasp. We get bogged down by too many things on our to do list, so that the things that didn’t get done become things that needed to be done yesterday, so we are still working on them today, and we doubt we’ll ever get to the things we are supposed to do tomorrow.  Then we have emotional things from yesterday that are upsetting today and if we don’t deal with them they continue to bother us and we start dreading tomorrow. 

We need to learn to take each day as it comes and accept that we may not get everything done each day.  Prioritize the importance of things and do the big things first, then the little things that don’t get done, don’t get done. Start over with the new day.  Emotions need to be dealt with when they come up, it is not healthy to drag them out.  The more you drag them out, the more they could drag you under. 

Remember…

"Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift, that’s why they call it the present."