Lot's Wife

Yesterday being mother's day, the Sacrament speaker was Sis. Peterson (our high councilman's wife) and she shared a talk by Elder Holland about "Remember Lot's Wife" I found the talk fascinating and shared it at ARP last night. It spoke of walking forward with hope. Lot's wife couldn't let go of the past- she was too attached to it, and let it define her and pull her back from the hope of what could lie ahead of her in the future. Elder Holland said "her attachment to the past outweighed her confidence in the future" How easy it is to hold onto past wrongs, sins, habits, broken dreams and memories. Elder Holland suggests that we have faith in our Savior, we trust him to lead us to something better, and there in is hope.  Hope is not a knowledge of what will happen, but a belief or expectation.  Christ loves us- he becons to us to come to him and find peace and rest.  We must believe that, and hope for that, but what is it that holds us back?  The past? 

I think it is significant that she turned to salt.  Salt is used to dry things out.  When we loose hope, Joy is drained from us, and the fullness of happiness is lost.  Happiness and Hope are truly a life blood that fills us.

Turning from the past, doesn't mean that we have to completely sever all ties and forget what has happened- Like Margi says, take what you like and leave the rest at our meetings.  I will apply that to the past as well. The apostle paul said:

"This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14).

 We can't let the past define us, we can't look back longingly like Lot's wife did.  We can't be so attached to it, that it paralyzes us from moving forward towards what Christ has for us.  We must move forward with forgiveness, repentance, and hope into a new day with new chances and new opportunities, for ourselves and others.

 
"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."  Elder Holland

ACT:  Topic for the week is Finding Hope in Christ.  I feel like my job as a missionary is to simply share my testimony of the promises of the savior.  And all those are about finding hope through him.  I need to work on learning those things/references.