It's important to embrace our past and the present - they are both gifts from God. But we need to account for the ways God will continue to gift us in the future. Each season of life brings with its own blessings. If we live faithfully, our lives follow a pattern where the main focus goes from learning, to earning, to returning.
Faith is both a gift and a virtue. We can’t give ourselves this gift of faith. It’s been given to us by God himself. God desires that we all come to knowledge of him and come to salvation, but it is also a virtue which means it’s something that has to be cultivated. It has to be exercised.