THROUGHOUT LIFE

"We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check."(James 3:2)

What you say and what you don't say are both important. Proper speech is not only saying the right words at the right time, but it is also controlling your desire to say what you shouldn't.

As a young child, I remember following my older friends one day to an apple tree that belonged to our neighbour.

Because I was smaller, they helped me up into the tree and had me pick the apples and toss them down to them. It was fun and I was enjoying it!

Suddenly, I heard shout, "quick, they're home. Let's run!"

But, they forgot one thing; ME! They left me in the tree.

The owner came to the tree and there I was, sitting in the tree, not realizing what I was doing was wrong. I had a slight idea but I just thought we were picking apples for Mom’s apple cake and that everything was happy and good.

They got me down from the tree and took me to my parents. Standing in front of my parents, I had to explain what I was doing in their tree.

I was sad after I learned what I was actually doing.

These are the consequences of following without understanding the how and why of it all. I was only little, but no matter the age, no matter the innocence, if we get caught up in the wrong place doing the wrong thing, there will be repercussions.

Sometimes it can leave a scar.

There have been other times throughout my life when I blindly and innocently followed or got involved in things that I wished I hadn't.

But, to hold onto those things as if they had just recently happened would be hurting and punishing me even more.

How do we change the past? How do we erase those things that came upon us innocently or unknowingly?

We cannot change the past. We can't even change the future if we continue to wallow in the things that happened to us in the past.

We can only change today by taking that first step and letting the past be the past, and the future be the future.

We can't be so hard on ourselves. Today is a new day. God wants to heal us.

Let go of what happened in the past and move on. Learn from it and try not to fall back into the same thing again. Take it one day at a time.