Disclaimer: This is the second blog I’ve written about my family’s time at New Life Children’s Home in Villa Nueva, Guatemala during Spring Break 2017…and it probably won’t be the last.

The New Life Children’s Home (NLCH) is filled with 56 orphaned, abandoned and abused children. Every one of them has a name, every name has a story and every story matters to God. I couldn’t help but be intrigued by their stories and wanted to know every one of their narratives. What was their life like before arriving at NLCH? Were they neglected? Or victims of trauma? Were they targets of human trafficking? What tragedies and misfortunes had these young, blameless children braved in their short time on this earth?

And I learned many of their histories. Like the story of 10-year-old Alexys. Several years before arriving at NLCH, Alexys’ jaw was broken when he was hit by a car. It didn’t heal correctly, leaving him where he could barely open his mouth. On Tuesday of the week we were there, Alexys underwent a very delicate, corrective surgery that allowed him full use of his mouth. He was a tad swollen and had some pain, but the boy who could barely open his mouth on Monday when we first met him, had surgery on Tuesday and ate a hot dog on Wednesday evening!

I could go on and on about the reports of the children living at NLCH. But there was something I discovered. The children are a bit tentative when it comes to sharing their stories and a bit hesitant to have their past retold. It’s not that they are necessarily ashamed of their stories. Rather it’s that they prefer to focus on who they are not on who they were. It’s about where they are headed and not where they’ve been. They are finding healing from their past and choose to focus on the hope they see in their future.

What a tremendous lesson for us all. Our past is past. While it is important, we are not our past. While our past influences us, it does not define us. What matters today is not our past. It doesn’t matter what we’ve done, who we did it with, or how long we did it. What matters is what direction we are headed today.  If we want to grow, we must stop focusing on our past and focus instead on our future. We must stop focusing on what happened and instead on what we want to happen.

Yes, everyone has a name, every name has a story and every story matters to God. And God is not finished with your story.

…forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal… Philippians 3:13-14