This lesson reminds us that we don't have to walk around with the past pushing us from behind. The past does not determine our future—our future is determined by God. As we live freed in the present, God creates the future for us with joy, security and peace.

I seek a future different from the past.

From new perception of the world there comes a future very different from the past. The future now is recognized as but extension of the present. Past mistakes can cast no shadows on it, so that fear has lost its idols and its images, and being formless, it has no effects. Death will not claim the future now, for life is now its goal, and all the needed means are happily provided. Who can grieve or suffer when the present has been freed, extending its security and peace into a quiet future filled with joy?

Father, we were mistaken in the past, and choose to use the present to be free. Now do we leave the future in Your Hands, leaving behind our past mistakes, and sure that You will keep Your present promises, and guide the future in their holy light.

Quote of the Day
"All that is real in our past is the love we gave and the love we received. Everything else is an illusion. The past is merely a thought we have. The purpose of our lives is to give birth to the best which is within us."

— Excerpted from A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles