MOVING DAY

 

M O V I N G    D A Y

 

Most all of us who have lived more than a few decades have experienced “Moving Day” from time to time in our lives.

We move for a lot of reasons: school, work, and life events like a mission or marriage.

Sometimes we need more space as our family grows, or we need to down size as our children move away. Whatever the reason for our move, most all moves involve a lot of work and we find ourselves donating or discarding items we have worn out or no longer need. 

These past few weeks Annette and I have been helping our daughter Cami get ready to move to Bakersfield to be closer to her sister Janeece. The workers at Deseret Industries and Goodwill are now on a first name basis with us! The dumpster guy is wondering where all this stuff is coming from, and Lowe’s had to place a special order of boxes just to keep up with our demand!

  Our moves can help us declutter our lives and despite all the effort, it feels good as we clean up and move on.

Though not a perfect analogy, our spiritual lives can use a good ole “Moving Day” from time to time.

Being human, we all acquire clutter throughout our lives. We often refer to this “spiritual moving day” as repentance, discarding our old baggage and clutter and heading in a new direction. Once we make the effort to “move on”, it would be counter productive to “move back” both physically and spiritually.

Apostle Garrit W. Gong reminded us that “Once we repent and Priesthood leaders declare us worthy, we need not continue to confess and confess these past sins. To be worthy does not mean to be perfect. Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness invites us to be humbly at peace on our life’s journey to someday be perfect in Christ, not constantly worried, frustrated, or unhappy in our imperfections today. Remember, He knows all the things we don’t want anyone else to know about us- and loves us still.”

At times we might be tempted to look over the fence at our neighbor’s place and think that it’s time for them to move! To make that conclusion spiritually for another overlooks the fact that most repenting takes place privately and has a different time frame for everyone, besides, “spiritual moving” is hard for us humans to judge.  That’s probably why the savior explained, “I the Lord will forgive whom I will forgive, but as for you it is required to forgive all men.” (D&C 64:10)

Moving out and moving on are both good for all of us. We need to allow our neighbors to do the same- at their own pace and in their own way.

It was Albert Einstein who reminded us- “life is like riding a bicycle, to keep your balance, you must keep moving!” May we all learn to take advantage of a good ole “moving day” from time to time and may we allow others to do the same.

Much Love-    The Grandparent Chronicles