Comments on: Walking backwards

By: Pat Slomanski

Pat Slomanski — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 20:43:17 +0000

Thank you, Charlie, for this beautiful essay. I SO needed it. You are right. Holding onto the past – whether it was bad or good – can cause us to stumble and fall. It has done this to me and still does. Thank you for such an insightful essay. I have just printed it and will read it several times. Pat Slomanski

By: If You Look Backward While Walking Forward, You Fall Down | Christianity 201

Fri, 04 Apr 2014 21:30:59 +0000

[…] Today we’re paying a return visit to Charlie LeHardy, who writes at AnotherThink. Some of his thoughts were more in context in January when he wrote this, but as I tried to edit it, logic dictated I share the whole thing with you. You’re encouraged to read this at source, where it appeared as Walking Backwards. […]

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sat, 18 Jan 2014 15:26:55 +0000

What you say is true. I would say that we need to walk away from the past and toward our Savior, which is what you say. But I would have added something that some colleagues and I were saying the other day, which is that when you have lived a life of necessary risk and have done things you would rather not have done (even sometimes when it was necessary to do them) and have suffered enough pain at the hands of other people and have been sufficiently wounded, it maybe shouldn’t be surprising if you never totally escape the marks that these things leave on your spirit. I have long thought that if the emotional wounds (self-inflicted or not) that we have suffered were to be manifested outwardly as our physical wounds often are, there would probably be very few of us walking around without crutches, bandages, prostheses, missing limbs, wheelchairs, or the like. The pains we experience in life help us to become what we are becoming, and I am sorry for those who, sometimes in disobedience, try to “protect” themselves and their loved ones by avoiding pain and inconvenience. But I also sympathize with those who have made the right life choices and have suffered greatly because of choosing as they did — like Paul. Even taking up the cross, as we are told we must, can leave us with a seriously bruised shoulder. I’m now 71 years old. I’m beginning to understand why our life span is no longer than it is. I have in no way lost my interest in living, but because of my hope in the Savior, I am looking forward to the day when the harmful effects of my past will be erased and I will be made whole again. Thank you for giving me an occasion to say this.

By: Judi Lynn

Judi Lynn — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 14:32:25 +0000

I needed to read this…thanks.