What Lies Ahead is Better than What You are Asked to Leave Behind

Texas in 8 days. Wow. It is coming so quickly. My house is almost completely packed. I pick up my truck on Tuesday and pack it all up Tuesday and Wednesday. Then Harry Potter Thursday at midnight and hitting the road on Friday morning.

Jessica gave this amazing lesson at institute on Tuesday on a talk given by Jeffery R. Holland (Remember Lot's Wife). The talk had already sparked some re-evaluation in my life, but after Jessica's perspective I have really thought about my tendency to become like Lot's wife.

There are a few personal things I need to say, but don't really know how-so instead I will write them here:

*First, I need to really let people's mistakes go (especially if I want them to let mine go). I don't need to carry around 'buckets of sand and throw them in people's face'. The weight of those buckets really wear down my resolve and pull me away from being more Christlike.

"When honest effort is being made to progress, we are guilty of the greater sin if we keep remembering and recalling and rebashing someone with their earlier mistakes, and that "someone" might be ourselves. We can be so hard on ourselves, often much more so than with others! Like the Anti-Nephi-Lehies of the Book of Mormon, bury your weapons of war, and leave them buried."

*Second, I need to forgive and forget. There are a few key people who I need to forgive completely and then forget. I don't think this will make us close again or even put us on speaking terms, but it is something I have been working towards and something I finally feel ready to do (I am sorry it took me so long).

"When something is over and done with, when it has been repented of as fully as it can be repented of, when life has moved on as it should and a lot of other wonderfully good things have happened since then, it is not right to go back and open up some ancient wound which the Son of God Himself died trying to heal. Let people repent. Let people grow. Believe that people can change, and improve."

*Third (and probably most importantly), I need to remember that what the Lord requires us to give up, he replaces with so much more.

Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ is the "high priest of good things to come."

I cannot wait for this move to Texas. Its going to be wonderful, I know that there will be struggles and challenges. But I am ready! I am ready to let go of my comfort zone and let the Lord continue to mold me. I'm ready to leave the past behind me and I am looking to the future with Faith.