NormsMilfordBlog

The Best of Jack’s Winning Words 4/29/24 – Reposts from the blog of the late Pastor Jack Freed – Originally sent February 26, 2009

“Always look at what you have left. Never look at what you have lost.” (Robert Schuller) I generally agree with the thought of this quote. However, I get a bit nervous when I see the words, “always” and “never,” because I want some wiggle-room. Schuller’s basic point is that we need to appreciate what we have and look ahead, rather that live with regrets and look back. I like that. 😉 Jack 

There are all sorts of sayings about not focusing upon looking back. I like these two –

 You can’t drive forward if you keep looking in the rearview mirror. That’s why the windshield is huge, so look forward.

There’s a reason why the rearview mirror is smaller than the windshield – where you are going is way more important than where you’ve been.

 Jack Freed was a glass half-full person who didn’t spend a lot of time dwelling on the past. He was much more interested and focused upon the future.

Where are you looking? Do you spend much of your time looking in the rear-view mirror in regret. Do you dwell upon some past event or decision that you made that didn’t work out as you had hoped?

Don’t you get tired of staring into that tiny mirror of the past rather than looking out through the windshield of the future and seeing what yet may be. Let the things in your past fade into the distance where they belong.

Former First Lady Betty Ford was quoted as saying, “I don’t look at what I’ve lost. I look instead to what I have left.” To that I would add, “And what is yet to come.”

So, change were you are looking. A glance at the past is sometimes useful for learning something from it. You can’t live there, but you can live in the future. Look to the future.