The older I get, the more I find myself saying things such as, "if only I could turn back the hands of time" or, "if I could take what I know now and use it when I was younger, things would be different". This is sort of my self pity party of my lot in life with certain things and situations. But, try as we like, we can never turn back the hands of time. Those things are in the past and done. There is nothing we can do to rectify that - or is there?

We are all given opportunities in our life to teach those things where we have learned life's lessons the hard way - in an effort to demonstrate that the path the other person is one can lead to unhappy results. In this way, we are given second chances. That is why we as parents sometimes have to be strict with our children; because we don't want them following down familiar paths that lead to sorrow and regret.

I love the movies around Christmas time that portray those second chances. In "It's a Wonderful Life", where George starts down a happy road, but things start going downhill for him. It gets to the point where George exclaims that he wishes he was never born. Clarence, the angel 2nd class shows George how things would be without him, George finds out that he wants to live again, and in effect is given a second chance with life. Similarly, the movie "A Christmas Carol", plots the very bitter Ebeneezer Scrooge with 3 ghosts - past, present, and future. Ebeneezer sees the error of his ways and swears that he will keep Christmas in his heart forever. Ebeneezer; via a vivid dream is given a second chance.

How many of us have been given second chances? I think we all have been given, or presented with second, third, fourth, fifth and so on - that many chances during our lifetime. I say presented, because sometimes we do not wish to take advantage of those extra chances.

To us that have regrets about something like not furthering our education, employment, etc, we can work those out. We can still take advantage of those opportunities to better ourselves. It just takes total commitment and perseverance. A good friend of mine went back to college to get her Batchelors degree and is employed in her field of study. She is pursuing further, to get her Masters, where she can get even better employment in her field. Talking with her, she struggled with school but stuck it out; with all the studying, thesis', finals all while maintaining her home and family. Oh, and she is 52 years old and accomplished this. She took advantage of second chances.

I have blogged about this before (I believe). When I was younger, I had every opportunity to serve a mission for the church. I had even gone to the extent of starting the paperwork, had families that pledged they would help me financially, and was mentally getting prepared to serve a mission. It never happened. I looked at the 2 years of service as an eternity and grew scared. So, in short I never served. I tried to convince myself that I didn't need to go, and I could serve when I was retired as a couple. When I moved my wife and myself from friends and family in Pennsylvania all the way to Utah for a job that (I did not know) would end 7 months later, I found myself questioning what my purpose of picking up and moving out here to Utah was. To make a long story short, my calling as a Musical Missionary with The Mormon Tabernacle Choir I feel very strongly is my second chance given to me by The Lord to serve a mission. I am grateful for second chances.

The Savior gave many people second chances, namely Lazarus, the woman who was to be stoned for adultery, and the many healed of sickness and disease. We do not know the after-story of these people, but I would like to believe they used what they learned and helped others.

 I submit, to those who investigated the church and are converts, you have been given a second chance. Your lives, while as non-members may have been filled with much happiness, however until you realized your divine heritage and were baptized into the church, you probably have even more joy with the further knowledge you have of who you are, where did you come from, and where you are going when you pass from the earth.

To simplify it even further, I believe every time we follow the steps of repentance, we are given second, third, fourth, etc. chances by our loving Heavenly Father if we just come to Him. He is willing and ready to give us second, third, fourth, fifth and many more chances until our garments are spotless white and we can "...enter into the joy of [His] rest."