Your book of remembrance

When I heard it, this sentence from Elder Gerrit W. Gong's past conference talk "Always Remember Him" struck me deeply:

"Have you ever thought of yourself as your own living book of remembrance—reflecting what and how you choose to remember?"

I don't think I had previously thought of the things I remember as a choice.  To think that I could choose what I remember about past times felt monumental to me.  I don't really like to talk about many things in my past because I remember lots of negative feelings and things I wish I would have done differently.  I know I've had good things in my life, but I seem to have this problem where I mostly only remember the bad things.  Even in recent years.  I tend to dwell on the negative a little bit.  But this phrase from Elder Gong seriously hit a chord in me.  It made me realize two important things:

1. You can look on your past in a positive light
2. Remembering the good things in your life can be so much easier by keeping a record of them as they happen

I know there has been a lot of good in my life.  I feel extremely blessed for so many reasons.  I love where I am now and I know that it's because the Gospel of Jesus Christ has brought me real peace and lasting happiness attainable only through Him.

I have a lot of forgiveness to release still, especially for myself.  Something I try to remember is that in any point of my life I did the best I could with what I had and knew at the time.  Elder Gong quoted Christian philosopher Soren Kierkegaard who said:

"Life must be understood backward.  But ... it must be lived forward."

I love that.  I'm working on feeling more gratitude for the past moments I've lived, to be happy about what I've had instead of wishing for something different.  Learning and growing is the point of us being here on the earth in the first place.  If we can learn from what we have done and implement those lessons in our current moments, our lives now and our future will feel bright and hopeful.  And it will be even more so if we can let go of life's many disappointments.  That's what I need to do, and I know that as I do, I can have an even more fulfilling life because nothing will be haunting me or holding me back!