I heard this quote in church last Sunday and it has stuck with me and I absolutely LOVE it! It was like a remarkable answer I'd been looking for and it has touched my heart and made it better. You see for quite a while now I've been reflecting on some choices I've made throughout my life and there are some I'm not quite proud of to say the least. As a matter of fact some of those not-so-great choices I've made, well, I've not made them only once. A few of them I've repeated and though I'm not proud of these choices they have made me the person I am and for that I have to say that I am a better person due to some of those not so positive choices. Am I glad I made them? No, I'm not glad but am I okay that I made some of them -- you better believe it. Never in my life I have I thoroughly appreciated the things that came really easy. Not much has come easy and I can tell you that because I hardly remember any of the things that did. However, those hard lessons -- those I can remember well! Most of them, well, let's just see I hold them close in my heart and I appreciate them with the biggest part of my heart. Do wrong choices make us a failure? How would we appreciate the good without the bad? The scriptures give us many references to just this very thing. Without Eve having tasted the forbidden fruit there would be no right and wrong, bitter and sweet. Was it the right thing Eve did? No, but she was given the choice also known as free agency to choose and act for herself. She chose to eat of the bitter fruit which resulted in Adam also partaking of the fruit and for this they were cast out of the Garden of Eden and life was then so different for them.
Agency is a gift given to each of us and we are held accountable for those choices. I am so grateful for the gift of repentance and the opportunity to repent of the mistakes I have made and continue to make in my life. I am thankful for the gift of the Atonement and for my Savior who gave his entire life and suffered the greatest pain so that we can be forgiven for our mistakes. I love my Heavenly Father and I owe Him so much. It is incredible what he did, even for just me and the love He has even for just me. I know He must hurt when I make wrong choices and stray just as I hurt when my children do the same. I KNOW He loves me, I feel the LOVE He has for me everyday. He does not want me to fail - He doesn't want any of His children to fail - He is there for us at all times.
For the good things in my life that I've done, it has been because of the things I've been taught by those in my life and by the grace of dear Father in Heaven. All good things come from Him. For the mistakes I've made, I am truly sorry and hope to be a little better tomorrow than I am today which is hopefully a little better than yesterday. For the setbacks I've had, well, hopefully I've learned from them and there's some roads I hope to never travel back through. For the future, I pray for strength to go forward with a smile and to help someone else along the way so they don't travel the dark roads I've traveled and hopefully my destination will be one of sunny days and happy times with my loved ones. As for the past I'd like to borrow the words of Mr. Edison himself : "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that did not work."
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