Today Is As Good As Yesterday

"Say not, 'Why were the former days better than these?'

For it is not from wisdom that you ask this" (Ecclesiastes 7:10).

This is the verse that has been running around in my brain for the last month.  I was casually reading through the book of Ecclesiastes when this verse hit me right between the eyes.

You see, I've hit a period in my life where it has been easy to think that the "former days" were better.  It was better when I was little and did not need to worry about money.  It was better when I was in college and saw my friends every day.  It was better when I had a church home where I already knew everyone.  It was better when my cat's life had not been turned upside down multiple times in the same year.  It was better when...

You get the idea.

And it does not only pertain to a person's life.  It was better 100 years ago, when the population still had Christian values.  It was better before Bible reading and prayer were taken out of the public schools.  It was better when taxes were lower and the government smaller.  It was better when gas cost under a dollar.

It's an easy trap to fall into.  Who doesn't look back on the "Good ole days" through rose colored glasses?  The problem is that the "good ole days," in reality, were not always so good.

Stop and think about it.  Before you worried about money, you worried about something else.  In college, you struggled through late night homework, deadlines, exams, and balancing school plus a job.  Back when things cost less, people also made less.

Every era, every season of life, and every day comes with its own problems.  Honestly, unless it was a life changing event, these are the things we often don't see when we look back.  Things that seem minimal to us now--a broken toy, perhaps--were a big deal at the time.  The "former days" were no better or worse than today; they just came with different difficulties and joys.

Different does not mean better or worse.  Yesterday had different problems than today.  And guess what?  Tomorrow's struggles will be different yet.  I did not worry about finding a full-time job while I was in college, just like I did not worry about passing orals when I was in high school.

Wisdom does not ask, "Why were the former days better than these?"  Instead, wisdom says, "The same God who brought me through the former days will bring me through today."