Moving Forward

After church I grabbed January's issue of the Ensign church magazine, still wrapped in its plastic covering, and headed to the pool side for some sunshine and good reading. Now that school is over for a minute I have time to study up on the things which matter much more to me... like the Gospel! I found the article titled "Leaving the Past in the Past" on page 25 to be especially helpful and a bit entertaining. I giggled as I imagined this particular excerpt taking place:

"Let people repent. Let people grow. Believe that people can change and improve. Is that faith? Yes! Is that hope? Yes! Is that charity? Yes! Above all, it is charity, the pure love of Christ. If something is buried in the past, leave it buried. Don’t keep going back with your little sand pail and beach shovel to dig it up, wave it around, and then throw it at someone, saying, “Hey! Do you remember this?” Splat!

Well, guess what? That is probably going to result in some ugly morsel being dug up out of your landfill with the reply, “Yeah, I remember it. Do you remember this?” Splat.

And soon enough everyone comes out of that exchange dirty and muddy and unhappy and hurt, when what our Father in Heaven pleads for is cleanliness and kindness and happiness and healing.

Such dwelling on past lives, including past mistakes, is just not right! It is not the gospel of Jesus Christ... In cases of marriage and family, wards and branches, apartments and neighborhoods, [it can destroy so many]."

He goes on to urge us to "keep our eyes on our dreams", and to "live to see the miracles of repentance, forgiveness, and trust transform our lives today, tomorrow and forever".

I loved this because so often we resort to our past to find happiness, disappointments, justifications, limitations, hurtful experiences, accomplishments and so on, which inhibits us from full heartedly progressing. I believe that my past is an essential part of who I am, but I have to make the most of today and each day hereafter in order to fully reach my life potential and heavenly fathers plan for myself and those who surround me.