During the holiday season, we have many emotions boiling over and capturing our minds. We reminisce and think about past events, past family members, past love, past failures, and past successes. Everyone is guilty of being a little nostalgic. “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens shows how the past and the present can influence each other, creating an avalanche of thoughts, emotions, and feelings. What did we do wrong in the past, and what should we do in the future? Two questions we cannot change and cannot answer. We can take stock and relax knowing that God has a plan for our welfare and future with hope, as described in Jeremiah 29:11. God’s plan does not include evil, which means we have to allow it into our lives.
Remembering things that have happened can bring smiles and tears. We love to remember happy times and events that brought joy to us. But then our memories have a way of reminding us of sad and tragic events that cause us to ruminate, causing hurt and disappointment to surge up. First Corinthians 11 tells us that all things are from God and that He commends those who remember and maintain traditions. Nostalgia, or remembering, has a positive effect on our attitude. Nostalgia can help us steer us through complex issues and remind us of our history. Events survived, and events that were enjoyed. Remembering helps build foundations that our future can be based on. Isaiah 40:29 states, “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.”
First Corinthians 9:24 reminds us that in a race, all the runners run, but only one receives the prize. “So run that you may obtain it.” We all want to be the best possible version of ourselves, but we fail. The “ideal self” is especially important to keep us trying to achieve the best for ourselves and our families. Thinking of the future is what keeps us moving forward. This futuristic thinking increases optimism, creates a sense of purpose, and often helps reduce stress. Developing positive future thinking helps us set goals, create desires to build skills, and daydream of what might be in our futures. A positive view of our future self helps remove fear from the unknown. Matthew 6:34 describes this positive thinking, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
The idea of facing the future is a terrifying proposition for some folks. Not everyone has the pleasure of having a solid foundation and support system. The “New Year, New You” is only a sad phrase used by people who are happier than others. Some folks feel they have nothing to look forward to. Loss of friends and family, old age, and sickness cause people to despair and lose hope. The holidays can be incredibly challenging for many people. These people anticipate the future with dread and anxiety. Dread causes anxiety, and anxiety causes dread. The body allows anxiety and dread when anticipating adverse events and bad outcomes. Anxiety and dread will paralyze and ruin a person if not controlled. Philippians 4:6-7 combats these symptoms by stating, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
As we go into the new year, not knowing what it may bring and what challenges we may face, we should take heed to First Peter 5:7 that we should “cast all our anxieties on God, because He cares for us. And if this is not enough to put our minds at ease, we can certainly find peace in Matthew 6:25-34. Verse 25 through 34 reads: “Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is life not more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than them? Which of you, by worrying, can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things, the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”