Looking back or pressing forward…

Looking back or pressing forward…

Recently, one Wednesday morning, I learned a lesson while walking through my neighborhood with Hudson .  As most of you know, I get to keep Hudson on Wednesday’s during school while his mommy teaches 6^th graders at Bonham Middles School. 

Hudson is a very busy boy, he does not sit still very well, and for the most part that includes time in a stroller.  He takes everything in…the sights, the noises, the people we pass on our walk…Hudson watches everything.  But often he makes me and my grandmother’s heart, nervous by looking behind him.  He strains against his restraints and leans out as far as possible so that he can get another look at the sights we have just passed by.

While watching him squirm to turn around I tried to figure out how to make his ride more enjoyable. A way to make it more comfortable so he could look at the sights he was seeking without contorting into all positions… I was actually trying to decide how I could turn his stroller around and somehow “pull” it behind me, all the while thinking I wanted to invest in a wagon because I thought it would be easier to pull and Hudson could turn any direction he wanted in order to look at the sights.

And suddenly, in the middle of trying to figure out how I could better accommodate my grandson and make his desire to look at what was behind us more comfortably, I realized that is just the opposite of what my Father in heaven does for me. 

Looking at what is behind us; trying to focus on what we have already walked through, whether missed opportunities or times of enjoyment and victory can cause us to miss so much of what we are actually experiencing in the present, or even looking to the future and being able to prepare for what is coming our way.

As we strolled through the neighborhood, there was a man mowing a lawn. He tried so hard to get Hudson to wave and smile at him, but it wasn’t until we had walked past the house that Hudson decided to turn around and wave and yell, “Hola!” to the man who had returned his attention to the job at hand. It seemed like a missed opportunity for Hudson, and he just kept turning around in his seat trying to get one last wave in at the man, who was no longer paying looking at him. However, because of the layout of our neighborhood, our morning walk brought us back around, and we walked by the same house two more times.  Both times, Hudson, saw the man before we got to the house and began waving and yelling, “Hola!” all the way, until we had passed him by.  Hudson learned from his past, and he recognized a missed opportunity. The fact that I had not figured out a way to make it easier and more comfortable for Hudson to focus on what was behind him, forced him to face the road ahead. And this helped him to see an opportunity to seize a missed moment.  An opportunity to say hello and wave before it was too late!

That is an outlook that I am trying to cultivate… Pressing forward.  No lingering looks behind me. Learning from my mistakes.  Not wallowing in self pity and self hatred. Enjoying where God has placed me today, right now.  Searching the horizon for opportunities.

Philippians 3:13-15
No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you.