pointed toward the future

"... As a new year starts and we try to benefit from a proper view of what has gone before, I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone, nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead, we remember that faith is always pointed toward the future."

In January a couple years ago my brilliant institute teacher at USC handed us each a copy of a BYU speech by Jeffrey R. Holland entitled "Remember Lot's Wife" that you can listen to here. It is a perfect talk to go over as we each start the new year.

"God doesn’t care nearly as much about where you have been as He does about where you are and, with His help, where you are willing to go."

And of course, Gone with the Wind is also applicable when Scarlett tells Ashley, "Don't look back Ashley, don't look back. It will drag and drag at your heart, until you can't do anything but look back." Deep, Scarlett.

I may or may not be chronically homesick, but if 2010 taught me anything, it's to live in the moment and appreciate the little things, which reminds me of another quote my brave 27-year-old cousin shared with me. She found out a couple months ago that she has stage 4 breast cancer, but she is fighting and has so much faith and resilience. She has been a true inspiration to me.

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."

-- Robert Brault