Some firsts are exciting.

• 1st day of kindergarten (I really liked my pink pleated skirt!)
• 1st paycheck (Even if I got sun poisoning lifeguarding that summer.)
• 1st dorm room (Cleaning the floor with furniture polish was not a great idea.)
• 1st plane ride (And the grandest view of a sunset in my life.)
• 1st cell phone (Even if it didn’t fit in my pocket!)

Some firsts aren’t so exciting.

• 1st speeding ticket
• 1st overdraft notice
• 1st surgery
• 1st perm

My first date was boring. My first kiss was sloppy. My first bridesmaid dress was hideous.

Firsts can be thrilling, frightening, or disastrous. The first is always a beginning. We don’t stay in the first. We grow from it. We shouldn’t steep in it; we should step out of it. It’s a journey.

You experience a first every day of your life. You have a choice to live today in a way that sets the foundation for tomorrow. Hopefully, many of the days leading up to this one have set firm foundations on which you’re now building. The firsts of today set the pace and priorities of tomorrow. You can wait until tomorrow’s today to make changes, but why waste today?

I remember the “today” I decided to live all other todays of my life for God. I appreciate the memory of that day, but I’m not going to reside in it. I don’t want to lose today and the opportunity to choose to live for God in the details of my new today. I haven’t filled every today with great choices. Not even close. But each day sets the pace and priority for the next.

What pace and priority are your setting today?

Challenge: Write a number one on your index finger in ink or permanent marker. Each time it catches your attention through the day, consider what you’re experiencing that can be used a foundation for tomorrow. Be intentional in your choices, responses, and adjustments.