Part III: Joy Despite Your Past

 Memory Verse:

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead

--Philippians 3:13

JOURNAL

Reflect on your past.

Try to identify at least five good memories from your past.

1. Waking up from surgery and being able to wiggle my toes on my left foot.
2. The day I married my husband and the moment he forgave me (see the first difficult memory).
3. The day(s) my children were born
4. The day I met Jesus.
5. When I graduated college with my bachelor's degree

Try to identify at least five difficult memories from

your past.

1. The moment I cheated on my husband
2. The moment(s) my husband and I fought so much, the cops came (Yup, that happened)
3. The death of my grandparents and seeing my parents cope with the loss
4. The day I lost a friendship I thought would last forever
5. The year I was diagnosed with Epilepsy and having to make and go through difficult times personally.

Your past experiences, good and bad, may have had you

chained to a peg that kept you from moving. Paul was saying

to us, “Time to pull that peg out of the ground and get free.”

Amen!  Each one of these memories has made me who I am today.  I am so thankful for each and every one of them, even the bad ones as I am able to move past who I was and am able to help others.