So Long 2012: Hello 2013

I was once told that in the 1830s a bill was put before the United States Congress to close the patent office because everything that could be discovered had surely been discovered by then. Therefore, there was no more need for a patent office. I don’t know if that is urban myth or if it actually happened, but even if it didn’t happen I’m sure there were people in the 1830s that thought there would be no more inventions.

In hindsight and knowing all that has been discovered since 1830, you and I can laugh at how absurd that idea was. But if we had been living in the 1830s we may have been among the naysayers. Naysayers only believe what they can see and what they have experienced and even then they are jaundiced by negative perceptions.

On this last day of 2012, I think there is something to learn from this. A new year brings with it new beginnings and who knows what wonders await us? We can be naysayers and think that the future will be exactly like the past—nothing new, nothing better. Or we can be excited about the possibilities of what is to come—new things to learn, new friends to make, new experiences, new growth, new tender mercies and miracles. As Mr. J's mission president, Stephen R. Covey, used to tell us every time we saw him, "The best is yet to come!"

So as the clock begins to strike to take us into 2013, I hope you begin the year by thinking, “The best is about to begin,” and then expect it.