Once a year my husband and I meet with a couple, whom we have established a friendship, to eat blue crabs. This year, we stepped up a little and ordered two dozens. Everybody knows my favorite food is blue crabs. This has become an annual event in which we just eat and catch up on what had happen since we last met. They brought their son along and he is one of the most adorable two-year olds you will ever meet. Of course, he is not up for the sport of crab cracking, but like all great American restaurant; they serve French fries. The French fries came out first, of course, and they were piping hot. Their son can’t wait to eat them so he dives in. As he picks up the first fry, he soon realized it was too hot, so he drops it. Then, seconds later, he picks the fry up again and started biting it and quickly realized it is was still too hot in his mouth and began to shake his head. One would think after that he would quit and wait for the fries to cool down but no; he picks up another fry and another fry repeating the same process. The faces he made were so funny, but it didn’t stop him from getting what he wanted. I told his mom, that he was very resilient, and she said, or he doesn’t learn.

The conversation stuck with me because I admired the two-year olds “stick-to-it determination. ”Regardless how hot those fries were, he kept eating them. He didn’t give up. Past experiences didn’t taint his determination. He just knew he like fries. What I have learned, as his mother alluded to be that we have learned things that are bad and things that are good. We have deemed things as bad or nonstarters because they are too hard, or could cause us too much pain. What would happen if we live our lives as that two-year-old? What if regardless of past experiences, hurt and pain, we press on? What would happen if we focused on the result and not the journey? The bible teaches us in Philippians 3:13 to forget those things which are behind us, and reach forward to those things which are before us. That means no matter how hard or how hot the journey, we must move forward. No matter how hot are those French fries, we must keep eating. No matter how deep the betrayal, we must trust. No matter how bad the divorce, we must keep loving. God is calling for us to move forward. At times, life may seem difficult and the journey may be tough, but we cannot move into the greatness God has for us, if we don’t reteach ourselves the truth and move forward. My prayer for you today my sister is to begin to pray and work on forgetting yesterday so that you can move forward into today!

Moving forward,

Felicia Smith