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, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV)

Paul made a conscious decision to forget. He chose to forget the past and move on. We must do the same. Forget what you can’t change, and change the things you can. Forget the past- it’s passed. Leave the past in the past so you can get past your past. It’s over. It’s done. It’s passed. Live in the present and look to the future.

Let me point out that you can learn from the past, but choose to move on from the bad things you’ve been through. Don’t let it keep you in torment. And stop regretting the past. You do this by receiving forgiveness for past mistakes and missteps. Use the thing in your past that was a stumblingblock and turn it into a stepping stone to go up higher and further in the present. Let it prepare you and propel you into your future. Your past will have no hold on you if you don’t let it. God has forgiven and forgotten, so you need to do the same. Forgive yourself, learn from your mistakes, but don’t live in the past.

Even those things in the past that weren’t necessarily bad can become bad for us if we refuse to move on from them. Some people refer to them as “glory days.” Like the high school football hero that is in his 50’s and still talks constantly about the big state championship game. He hasn’t moved on because he lives in that one glorious moment. Because he thinks nothing else can come close to the pleasure he got from the“big game” some thirty-some years ago, he has not enjoyed his life as much as he could have. It is not healthy to live in the past- even if it was good.

Today- what a wonderful word. If we could only see the value of today while it is today. Let’s choose to forget the past and move on.