We are, at our core, eternal beings. As such, we have an innate instinct to see ourselves as one continuous being. We tend to think of ourselves as more or less the same person as we were ten years ago and as we will be ten years in the future. We may have different experiences as the days go by, but through it all they are all happening to more or less the same person. This continuity, while echoing our premortal origins and presaging our post-mortal destinies, for all practical purposes is an illusion while we are confined to these mortal bodies in this temporal, time-bound realm. The truth is that we are not the same person we were yesterday as we are today nor will we be the same person tomorrow. But yesterday's self and tomorrow's self are our neighbors. They have had many, but not all, of the same life experiences and tackle many, but not all, of the same kinds of challenges. Christ said that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, but we also need to love ourselves as our neighbors. We need to have compassion and understanding and forgiveness for our past self. They were doing the best they could. They didn't understand things quite like we do now, but they were trying their hardest. We also need to have compassion on our future self. Sometimes we are going through experiences that we wouldn't wish on our worst enemy. Our future self is not our worst enemy. We should not make decisions that will ensure that our neighbor living in tomorrowland doesn't end up having an even worse time than we are having now. When we love our past self, we honor their sacrifices and we pay it forward by showing love for our future selves as we set them up for happiness and success. The Spirit of Elijah turns the hearts of the children to their fathers, and the hearts of the fathers to their children, but I believe that the Spirit of Elijah can also turn the hearts of our past selves to our future selves, and the hearts of our future selves to our past selves. I hope we can all love our past and future selves as our neighbors and allow that love to unite every version of ourselves to the common goal of becoming whole and complete and perfect through the grace of our Savior Jesus Christ.
