From Richard L. Evans book ‘From the Crossroads’:
Perhaps we have all had the experience of trying to find a place we haven’t been before, and of turning off the right road—and then somehow sensed that we had turned off the right road. But despite the warning sense within us, we may doggedly have pursued the wrong road until we arrived at a dead end, or until we had gone so far that we had lost much time and had much distance to retrace.
There are many ways in which we find ourselves on wrong roads, and seemingly there are many reasons why we don’t sooner turn back to the right one: sometimes because of stubbornness, of pride or perverseness; sometimes because of the fallacy of supposing that if a person has taken one wrong step they had just as well take two; that if they have slipped somewhat they had just as well slip farther; that if they’ve made one mistake, it doesn’t matter too much if they make more. These are all flagrant fallacies that cause carelessness to lead to more carelessness, misconduct to more misconduct, to the ultimate hardening of habits, and to heartbreak and unhappiness.
It was said of the prodigal son that he “came to himself.”98 But it was only after he had gone a long way in the wrong direction and after he had lost his inheritance and his self-respect. If those who erred would come to themselves sooner, they wouldn’t have gone so far to return. There is no reason one who has made a mistake should multiply their mistakes. The sooner a wrong is corrected, the less time is lost, and the less the penalty imposed, and the sooner is found that the peace that comes with the consciousness of being on the right road.
Let no foolish pride, no stubborn perverseness cause delay in correcting a wrong course. To recall the words of William James: Men “can alter their lives by altering their attitudes. . . .99 Let false pride be pushed aside;. . . . let us come to ourselves sooner, let the blessed principle of repentance enter the picture; wherever we are—for the awareness of moving in the right direction, after having moved in the wrong one, is wonderful awareness. ~Richard L. Evans (Salt Lake City: Harper and Brothers, New York, N.Y. 1955) 197-98
