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Faith Looks Forward: Lessons From Lot’s Wife And Letting Go Of The Past · ToddTalks--Spirit By Design: Your Weekly Survival Guide

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Talk Talks, where I help you design the spiritual life that you desire.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's another week, another time for discussion.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I've had several different ideas, several different thoughts that I want have been mulling over as I thought about what to talk for the talk about this week.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it's gonna be a little short, I think, today.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: But what I wanted to discuss is uh reading from Genesis, and in uh Genesis 19, it talks about Lot and uh Sodom and Gomorrah, right?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Lot and his wife.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it says in Genesis 19, uh, but his wife looked back from behind him and she became a pillar of salt.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this whole looking back, why did Lot's wife become a pillar of salt?
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  SPEAKER_00: And Elder Jeffrey R.
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  SPEAKER_00: Holland taught, this is from the uh Come Follow Me, apparently what was wrong with Lot's wife was that she wasn't just looking back in her heart, she wanted to go back.
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  SPEAKER_00: It would appear that even before she was past the city limits, she was already missing what Sodom and Gomorrah offered her.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: It is possible that Lot's wife looked back with resentment towards the Lord for what he was asking her to leave behind.
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  SPEAKER_00: So it isn't just that she looked back, she looked back longingly.
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  SPEAKER_00: In short, her attachment to the past outweighed her confidence in the future.
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  SPEAKER_00: That apparently was at least part of her sin.
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  SPEAKER_00: I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone, nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: However good these yesterdays may have been, the past is to be learned from but not lived in.
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  SPEAKER_00: We look back to claim the embers from growing experiences, but not the ashes.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead and remember that faith is always pointed toward the future.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: I find that very important.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: I find it very poignant because so often I have taught and talked about that you have to learn from the past, but you can't remain in the past.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: You can't fantasize about the past, you can't yearn for the sins of your past.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: So the the thing is, when we repent, when we've changed, you can look back at things that you did, and you need to leave them in the past.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because a new life in Christ is just that, it's a new life.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: When you repent, you've moved forward, you're changing, you're growing, you're becoming a different person.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Lot's wife's problem was that she looked back, yearning and longing for those things that were available to her and Sodom and Gomorrah.
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  SPEAKER_00: And that that's a tragedy because she died because of it.
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  SPEAKER_00: She was cursed.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: We look back at uh reading in the Book of Mormon and Laman and Lemuel.
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  SPEAKER_00: Um came from a good family, and what turned them away from God?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: One of the main things that turned them away from God is they always looked back at when they left Jerusalem, they looked back at the fact that they had to leave their riches, their gold, their silver, their precious things.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: They had to leave the life of luxury that they had.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: How often do you look back at your past and wish for things to be the way they were?
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  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was good things or bad things, but you you wish for what you do not have.
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  SPEAKER_00: Or you long for things that you've given up.
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  SPEAKER_00: Happens a lot with people that give up smoking, alcohol, um, any vices that you struggle to uh put that desire out of your heart.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's not the there's that old saying, um, the root of all money is the root of all evil.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the that money is the root of all evil, it's the desire.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: The desire because what that can do and all the vices that that can bring.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: There are so many things that we could talk about with this, but really what I want to bear down on and get you to think about is the fact that when we dwell on the past, when we dwell on things, especially past mistakes, it's not right.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's not living now, it's not living in the moment.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: I've learned a lot and talked a lot about living in the moment, mindfulness, and growing and moving forward, right?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: When you change, when you've made changes, you have to let the past go.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Learn from it, don't, but so you don't repeat it.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Dwelling on past mistakes, Elder Holland says, is just not right.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is not the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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  SPEAKER_00: To all people of every generation I call out, remember Lot's wife.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Faith is for the future.
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  SPEAKER_00: Faith builds on the past, but never longs to stay there.
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  SPEAKER_00: Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us, and that Christ truly is the high priest of good things to come.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Faith.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Faith to change, faith to do good things, faith to grow, faith trusts, as he said, that God has great things in store for each of us, and that Christ truly is the high priest of good things to come.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: So important to remember Lot's wife and her looking back longingly for the corruption and the life of ease that was that was given to them in Sodom and Gomorrah.
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  SPEAKER_00: The life of terri there were, I mean, there were good things and terrible things going on in that city.
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  SPEAKER_00: Mostly terrible.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so when they were commanded to flee before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and told to not look back, it's sad to think that when we change, when we give things up, if that we all have that bit of Lot's wife in us, where that desire to go back to a former life, whatever, whatever it is.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: But if you bring Christ into your life, if you take Christ in your heart, he can take those desires away.
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  SPEAKER_00: That's one of the keys, is that he can take those desires to look back.
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  SPEAKER_00: And he can replace it with desires for peace, desires for improvement, for joy, for love.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: The Savior is so good at teaching us and helping us.
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  SPEAKER_00: Why?
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  SPEAKER_00: Because he always keeps his promises.
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  SPEAKER_00: Always.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: We'll talk more about promises that the Lord has for us when we're faithful in another episode.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: But I just really want to talk and share that, you know, we can flee bad situations, we can change, we can improve our lives, we can live mindfully each day.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Last episode I talked about using meditation and prayer together to listen for what God wants you to do.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, Lott's family lived in a very wicked city and angels warned them to leave, right?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Today, it might not be angels warning you to flee from wicked things, but they're we definitely get impressions and personal revelation.
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  SPEAKER_00: The more you seek to receive it, as I've talked about, the more you will receive it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Hope that helps.
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  SPEAKER_00: Remember when you change, change in your heart, not just in your mind.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you too can find peace and comfort in Christ.
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  SPEAKER_00: I leave this and hope to that you'll be able to listen more and learn more.
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  SPEAKER_00: This has been Todd Tox, and I'll talk to you next time.