Quotable Quotes

I was given a copy of a portion of an article by Elder Holland today that was perfect for me, and for this new year. I'd love to share:

"The start of a new year is the traditional time to take stock of our lives and see where we are going, measured against the backdrop of where we have been. I don't want to talk about New Year's resolutions, but I do want to talk about the past and the future, with an eye toward any time of transition and change in our lives -- and those moments come virtually every day.

As a new year begins 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 and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives.

Forgive and Forget - There is something in many of us that particularly fails to forgive and forget earlier mistakes in life -- either our mistakes or the mistakes of others. It is not good. It is not Christian. It stands in terrible opposition to the grandeur and majesty of the Atonement of Christ. To be tied to earlier mistakes is the worst kind of wallowing in the past from which we are called to cease and desist.

Perhaps at this beginning of a new year there is no greater requirement for us than to do as the Lord Himself said He does: "He who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more" (D&C 58:42).

The Best Is Yet To Be - This is an important matter to consider at the start of a new year -- and every day ought to be the start of a new year and a new life. Such is the wonder of faith, repentance, and the miracle of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Some of you may wonder: Is there any future for me? What does a new year or a new semester, a new major or a new romance, a new job or a new home hold for me? Will I be safe? Will life be sound? Can I trust in the Lord and in the future? Or would it be better to look back, to go back, to stay in the past?

To all such of every generation, I call our, "Remember Lot's wife." Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that Gad has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the "high priest of good things to come" (Hebrews 9:11).

Keep your eyes on your dreams, however distant and far away. Live to see the miracles of repentance and forgiveness, of trust and divine love that will transform your life today, tomorrow, and forever. That is a New Year's resolution I ask you to keep."

Now. The trick for me is learning how to do that! :)