To Begin Again

Sometimes we hear someone say, “I wish I could begin again; I wish I could live life over with

what I know now.” It is not an uncommon wish, but time cannot be turned back, and no road in life can

be retraveled just as once it was. We can’t begin back where we were. But we can begin where we are,

and in an eternity of life, this is a reassuring fact. There is virtually nothing that a man cannot turn away

from if he really wants to. There is virtually nothing that a man cannot improve. There is virtually no bad

habit that he cannot conquer if he will sincerely set his will to do so and will sincerely seek and accept

help – the help of others and the help of the Father of us all. But our interest in being better, in

improving upon the past, in turning to new ways, in leaving bad habits behind, sometimes seems to be a wish without a will, a wish that assumes that about all we can do is wish. But there is no one who cannot

be better no matter how far he may have walked the wrong way. Without the principle and possibility of

repentance there would be little incentive left for any of us. All of us need it, whether we know it or not.

And even though we cannot go back and begin where we were, we can begin where we are, wherever

we are. No one is justified in assuming that a habit that has hold of him is unbreakable or that a poor

past performance cannot be improved. The wish to live life over with what we know now, is a wish that

cannot be realized. There is no turning back to any point of the past. But if we can’t begin where we

were, we can begin where we are, and the memory of a wrong road is blessedly dimmed by the reality

of being on the right road.