Do Over's

I remember coming home from my mission and mentioning multiple times how much I wanted to have a "do over". When I left on my mission I had the vision that I was going to go out and preach the gospel to everyone I came across. :) While I did have that opportunity to preach the gospel to a few people it wasn't my entire mission. I had a lot of mission companions who were suffering various degrees of illnesses. I spent a lot of time helping them thru various situations.

When I came home I always wondered if the Lord was pleased with my work as a missionary. I struggled with finding peace over it for a long time. I would tell my mom that I wish I could go back and re-do my mission with the knowledge I have now and change the outcome. One day she sat me down and told me that I need to quit living in the past and wishing I could have "do-overs". She said that we can't go back and change how things happen because each situation happens for a reason and we were suppose to learn something from that situation.

I learned a lot from those words that day. Over time I realized that even tho we can't have do-over's in life we do get "second chances" A chance to have a better result at something and to change the outcome of some situations. I learned that lesson a few years ago when I became a Relief Society President to a young single adult ward. I was over 110 young sisters. I prayed to know if the calling was one I should accept and I got the strongest impression that it was my chance to serve a second mission. After that confirmation, I viewed the calling in a whole different realm and I don't think I have ever appreciated a calling like that before. When I was released almost 2 years later, I got the confirmation that the Lord was pleased with both of my missions.

So I guess what I am getting at with this is simply:

If we don't like how our life is going we can't sit and wish that we could do it over and make different decisions. We made the decisions we did for certain reasons and possibly at the moment it was the best option out there. BUT if we are unhappy with the results of those decisions don't sit there and regret them and wish you could have done something completely different. Instead evaluate the decisions you have made, pull the good from them, and start today to make a brand new ending. Take those second chances we are given daily to change your view and better your current circumstances.

 

Some times I miss the way life use to be and wonder if I have made the right choices or if I let my pride or my insecurities dictate how my life has been thus far. But I know in order to get the results I want in life I need to take the second chance I get each day, change my outlook, change my attitude and go forward with faith that I can change the ending.

 

If you are unhappy, do something to change that unhappiness! What is making you unhappy? Are you regretting a choice you made? Are you doubting if you made the right choice? Are you wondering if you did something else or had kept doing something that you would be happier? Life is funny with the paths it takes us down but whatever choice you made that has led you down the path you currently are on you also have a choice to change what is making you unhappy.

Everything in life has a reason. We are free to make choices in life that is how we progress or digress depending on what we choose. Don't live in regret! Don't live in sadness! Don't live wishing you could take back something you put away! You can bring that back in your life if it was a good thing as long as you bring what life lessons you have learned as well. You can't block out what you have learned from current experiences.

 

Each experience we have shapes us into the people we are now. Each experience helps us grow and helps us to be stronger and hopefully in the end better people. The world is full of opportunities for us to take advantage of. I think a content person at times is a complacent person if the content person doesn't have the desire to move forward. You can be a content person if you are content with the choices you have made, accepted the hard moments, and have the desire to keep progressing from them. Be thankful for the experiences life has given you. It has given you the opportunity to seek out what you truly desire from it. It has given you the chance to think how you can become a better person.

Everything in life has a purpose. I think my favorite line from the above quote is "sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together"

God has given you a second chance! What are you going to do with it? Are you going to move forward or are you going to keep thinking of the past and how things once were? Are you going to stay in the state of mind you currently are in? Or are you going to take this opportunity and change your ending? You are writing the story of your life! You can have a tragic ending. You can have a sad ending. You can have a regretful ending. You can even have a happily ever after ending.

Bottom line: Choice is yours! You have been given an amazing opportunity to change your endings outcome! Take advantage of it! Reach for your desires! Don't let pride and or insecurities hold you back! Don't let unhappiness be your controlling factor to your future!

Your future is as bright as your faith!

Take your daily second chances and be a better person then you were the day before!

Look at your past with gratitude then look forward with faith to your future!

Know all things happen for a reason!

Revel in the positive moments and never forget you have the power within yourself to change your unhappiness, your change what is frustrating you, and to change the ending to your book of life!