Article December 27, 1969 Issue

Let the Past Go

FRANCHON EICHLER

"If I could only live my life over again; if I had known then what I know now. ..." How often wishes like these are expressed today by those yearning for better conditions in their present human experience!

But one can't live his life over again, and one didn't know then what he knows now; so where does he go from here? He goes to the "now" described by the Apostle Paul: "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."^{II Cor. 6:2;} He must silence the error that insists upon dwelling on the mistakes and poor judgments of the past.

Mrs. Eddy encourages one to act in the immediate present: "If you believe in and practise wrong knowingly, you can at once change your course and do right."^{Science and Health, p. 253;} There is no delay indicated here. There is no suggestion that one needs to relive his past in order to shape a desirable, righteous future. It is fruitless to yield to the temptation to look backward, brood over past mistakes, and condemn oneself for lack of wisdom in the past. One can lay claim now to an abundance of intelligence and wisdom through reflecting divine Mind, God, the all-bestowing creator.