As I walk this path called “LIFE” I discover more and more that where I place my focus determines my emotions, attitude, responses and actions. In recent years with struggles of growing older and dealing with aging parents, I have a tendency to become, what I call, “blue mountain focused”.

This phrase came to me on a morning walk as I was enjoying the beauty all around me. I am privileged to live a few miles east of the front range of the Rockies in Colorado. This particular morning there was a haze in the air that made the mountains and the sky disappear into a blue montage. I suddenly remembered something our oldest son used to ask when he was just a toddler. He would look at the mountains in the distance reflecting the blue sky and ask “when are we going to the blue mountainens?”. (He was always one for adding syllables to words.) We would tell him we would go soon, but that the mountains would not be blue when we got to them. He always seemed a bit sad and disappointed that he never got to the blue mountainens.

The term “blue mountain focused” came to me in such a clear, new way as I began thinking about how it relates to my focus in life. When I focus on the future rather than the present, I am focusing on blue mountains.

God says He gives us grace for today ONLY because today is all we are expected to handle! When we become blue mountain focused, we are trying to handle the future and we can’t. We don’t know what the future holds, we can only surmise. Once the future becomes the present, it will look nothing like it did when it was the future. In other words, the blue mountains will not be blue!

What they WILL be is a spectrum of colors from brown rock outcroppings; signifying difficult paths – to delicate flowers in a multitude of colors; signifying peace and joy in our lives. Green is connoted with growth. The green trees and grasses of all varieties that cover the mountains are the biggest part of our daily paths. We grow the most when we learn and grow from all the colors on our path.

If you are blue mountain focused, I know – from my own personal experience – that you are struggling with finding joy and growing in the place God has you at this time. Out of a kindred spirit…

… I am making a vow to myself and God right now, to pray for you in this next month, instead of being blue mountain focused. I know it will be a time of growth, and renewed joy, for you AND me!