Dave and I just celebrated our anniversary. We've kept an album of photos that tell the story of our lives together.

I realized the other day, that I also have another album. Every time I write to you or speak to an audience or teach a Bible study to troubled young girls, I share a picture from the album that tells the story of my life of walking with God. Not something distant or impersonal or secondhand or belonging to someone else. They're part of my story. I was there. I saw, I learned, I experienced, and no one can take these away from me.

But I've also realized something more. Of all the wonderful pictures I glace at in my album of my walk with Jesus, I'm most excited about the ones that are yet to come. I love what Jesus has done for me, but I can't wait to see what He's going to do. I cherish everything I've learned about Him, but I look forward to each new facet He's going to reveal in the days to come.

There's nothing wrong with Dave and me glancing back at our past together, but we should spend most of our efforts focused on what lies ahead, the best that is yet to come.

The same is true of our walks with Christ. Spend time looking back at where you've been, but devote most of your time looking forward to where you're going. It's what Paul meant in Philippians 3:13-14: "Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Together, let's reach forward to those things which are ahead. Let's press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call. Let's add some new pictures to our albums of our journey along the way. And let's share these pictures with those we encounter on the way.