Look Back and See How Far You’ve Come

I know we're told to NOT keep looking in the rearview mirror at the past, but this time it’s okay -- looking back at how far we've come. We’ve acquired abilities we never thought possible. We dreamed of driving a car and the day came when we passed the test and now we’ve been driving for years. We dreamed of one day getting married and having children. That day came and now we’ve raised or are raising our children and, quite frankly, doing a pretty good job at it. We dreamed of the day when we’d have a job that paid us well for our hard work. We put that dreaming to work as we earned a college degree or learned a skill or gained on-the-job, hands-on training and experience that opened up even more doors for us.

Think way back to where you started. Maybe it was that newspaper route that taught you the discipline of getting up early and the responsibility to be on time and throw it in the right place on the driveway. Maybe it was that waitress job that taught you patience, diligence and kindness. Maybe those school sports gave you the start you needed to be the team player with sportsmanship and comradery that you have with your fellow employees today.

We can all look back and see how far we’ve come. Who we are is a result of all we have learned, put into practice, and we became quite astute at it because we believed in hard work. I heard it said that “Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, and sacrifice”. We applied those principles and look how far we'ved come.

Think about Jesus Christ – the skills, the abilities, and the leadership qualities he had when he showed up on the scene at age 30. He must have acquired His skills from the training in His family's business and heading it up after His dad passed away. Think about His childhood, youth, and manhood, when He studied the Scriptures. As a little child He was daily at His mother’s knee taught from the scrolls of the prophets. And since He gained knowledge as we may gain it, His power, both mental and spiritual, is a testimony to the value of the Bible as a means of education Here is what was said of Him: “And He grew in wisdom, stature and favor with God and Man.” Luke 2:52.

If we keep working at that creative idea – we’ll land right where God planned for us to be. Like our Lord Jesus Christ -- diligently pursuing who God destined us to be, we'll hear those words, too: “And he/she grew in wisdom, stature and favor with God and man.” Now, whenever you find yourself doubting how far you can go, just remember how far you've already come.

I’ve Learned My Lessons About Look Backs

It’s been several weeks since I was able to make my trek back to Tulsa and I’ve missed everything and everyone there, especially Mom and my besties! I’m glad I’m heading there today, even in the rain AND cold!

When I moved to Frisco from Tulsa in 2016, I promised God I wouldn’t look back and wish I were still there. Famous last words. I'm glad God didn’t turn me into a pillar of salt like Lot’s wife when she looked back at Sodom and Gomorrah! I’ll admit I’ve missed my friends and family and familiar places. I haven’t wished to move back, but I have looked back on the best parts of living there. Selective thinking and remembering. Isn’t it funny how, when we’re missing something or someone, we don’t think about the negatives associated with them? And there were plenty. There were some tough and crazy times and my precious husband became fatally ill, but I've locked up the vault on those memories and throwing away the key!

Here’s the deal. As long as we keep looking backward, we’re not making progress going forward. In Luke 9:62, Jesus told the disciple “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.” Yikes! Thanks, God, for the reminder! I want to be fit for your Kingdom!

Why is it that we have such a longing to look back? God knows we are prone to backward glances and thinking about our mistakes and failures along with our successes and victories. We can learn from those experiences, but as long as we’re looking back, we can’t move forward. Living in those memories keeps us looking in the rear view mirror instead of looking ahead to where we're going.

It’s time to “Let it Go” (Hark! Do I hear Elsa from "Frozen" belting out her song?) I mean “Let go of the past – we can’t change it so it’s time to move forward. The past is the past and, yes, though we have fond memories of precious loved ones and times we hold near and dear to our hearts, but I’m sure we all have past experiences, relationships, and memories that we’re all ready to bury and forget about. Literally, it’s a new day. We can do nothing about our past, but we can do everything about our today and tomorrow, especially when it comes to thanking God for His many blessings and living in those blessings TODAY!

So I’ll give hugs and warm embraces to my dear ones AND even visit some of my favorite places while I’m there. But, God knows my heart and how grateful I am for precious new friends, new places, new faces, and new opportunities to love THIS place! I won’t be looking back, but looking forward with great expectation to what today and tomorrow holds. One thing’s for sure. God holds me and he holds my hand in THIS place!

Back and Forth -- Embracing the Past and Gearing up for an Amazing Future!

In usual "Wallace" fashion, we went to the opening night of the new Star Wars "Solo" movie. Indeed we are "star" struck with Star Wars, but, I'll admit, during the movie, I whispered to my daughter, "What's the matter with me? This isn't at all like one of my Hallmark movies! LOL!" Believe me, it wasn't! Spoiler Alert: The movie goes BACK in the Star Wars storyline to fill in the backstory of Harrison Ford's character of Han Solo. No doubt, a sequel will soon come that will take us FORTH to the future.

Last night we celebrated Payton's 18th birthday by going BACK and FORTH. Staci put together a slideshow that took us BACK to the past AND many of us wrote letters of advice for Payton's FUTURE. Staci and I were talking about this benchmark year and the hopes and dreams that Payton has for his future, but not before she reminisced about two-year-old Payton and 3 months old Alexia going with her clothes shopping.

Staci was in a department store dressing room of a department store with both little ones in tow. Overseeing Alexia was no problem. She was confined to her infant carrier. Staci undressed to start trying on some clothes when big brother scooted under the door and the captive was set free. Staci, barely clothed, ran from the dressing room to capture her escapee only to be alarmed that he had disappeared. With customers and employees of the store, the manhunt, rather toddler-hunt ensued. The escapee was finally apprehended sitting under a rack of clothes with a smile that could melt any heart. We went BACK in time and then we came back FORTH in time to embrace the Rite of Passage of this boy-to-man celebration.

Yesterday, I walked out to check on my little herb garden and was pleasantly surprised to see a gardenia bush growing right beside the garden. I've lived in this home for over a year now and never realized I had a gardenia bush. That, immediately took me BACK in time, to my Aunt Lillie Mae's home here in Dallas. Oh, how well I remember her incredibly fragrant and beautiful gardenia bush. It became one of my favorite flowers. Here I am way into the future and I am getting to love that "back" memory and my present and future thoughts.

For many circumstances in our lives, we're encouraged to NOT look BACK because of the stinging, hurtful and disappointing things we encountered. But, as God encouraged the Israelites in Deuteronomy 6 to remember how they were slaves to Pharoah but were freed, the Passover, the crossing of the Red Sea and most of all to go FORTH in faith and trust in their delivering God.

Maybe, today, it would be good to look BACK at your own life. If God healed, restored, opened doors for you before, He can and WILL do it again. The FUTURE is bright. Let's go FORTH in the light of a new day with goodness and mercy chasing us down. Maybe it's time to look BACK -- to see how far we've come!