Looking Back

 

Sometimes our growth is so incremental we don't even recognize it.

But looking back at where we have been can show us just how far we have come.  

The first time I remember Ella ever attempting a rock climbing wall she was 5 years old and so light that gravity wouldn't help her come back down when she let go. 

She was terrified and distressed and a worker had to go up and rescue her.

She adamantly swore she would never climb again.  

We told her she didn't have to try at this moment and it was okay to be afraid, but that yes, she would climb again.

And she has several times over the last 11 years with gradually increasing confidence and courage.  

This week she is at Girls Camp and we got a text from a leader that said our girl was awesome at the climbing wall.  

My mind was immediately drawn back to that sticky midwest summer day in Indianapolis when she was crying for us as she hung suspended by the harness and we tried to reassure her from below.  We knew she was safe, but she didn't yet trust the equipment and wanted to be in our arms.  I remember her clinging to me and sobbing into my shoulder afterword for what seemed like forever.

We also can learn to trust the safety lines of the Atonement and Gospel of Jesus Christ for ourselves.  It may not be on the same time table as others around us, and at times it may feel like we aren't really getting anywhere.

Elder Neil L Anderson counseled, "Sometimes in our repentance, in our daily efforts to become more Christlike, we find ourselves repeatedly struggling with the same difficulties. As if we were climbing a tree-covered mountain, at times we don’t see our progress until we get closer to the top and look back from the high ridges. Don’t be discouraged. If you are striving and working to repent, you are in the process of repenting.  As we improve, we see life more clearly and feel the Holy Ghost working more strongly within us."

Keep going.  Occasionally stop and look back.  And celebrate how far you have come!