Letting Go, and Moving Forward

Life. When you think of your life, what comes to mind? The past? The present? The future? If your anything like me, well I guess I should say like I use to be, you think of the past often. Maybe you even long for what use to be, or what could have been. When I first came out on my mission that was me. I was stuck in the past, stuck in what I use to be, not really wanting to put it behind me. Which in a lot of ways held me back from moving forward. Which I think is one of the worst feelings we can have, feeling like we aren't progressing, like we aren't moving anywhere. And it took me a little while to figure it out. To decide that I wanted to move somewhere, really anywhere, I knew I was done with the past, but I didn't want to face the future. Until... I realized what I was missing, the experiences, the endless amount of opportunities, and most importantly the chance I had to change, to become better. I wasn't who I use to be, but I wasn't where I could be either.

My wonderful mission president, President Bunker, shared something with me that really helped me to change, to realize what I needed to do. Right now, picture yourself driving a car. Your passing a lot things, trees, buildings, people, and you even stop every once in a while, you see something that catches you. But eventually you have to keep going you have to move on, and that experience now just becomes another image in your rear view mirror. And just like driving down the road, every once in a while you glance back to see whats behind you. But if you gaze to long on what use to be, what you passed by, you will not see whats coming up, and not only will you miss the opportunities that lay AHEAD of you, but you'll crash, and you'll find that you don't have what you use to have, neither do you have the opportunities that you could have had.

Just like driving a car, it's important to look in the rear view mirror. It's important to know whats behind us, but only to measure how far we've come. If we spend all of our time longing, or dwelling on what we use to be, we will never become who we can be.

I know that Heavenly Father has endless opportunities for all of us. "The best is yet to come!" We must "see afar off."  Heavenly Father has great blessings that await us. It's not always easy to let go of the past, especially when we can't see everything in the future but, we must have faith, and as we do we will grow, we will become better, and we will find greater joy. I know this because I've seen it in my life, as I've let go of who I use to be, and now am becoming who my Father in Heaven knows I can become.