Is your house haunted?

My brain houses my thoughts.  My heart houses my feelings and emotions.  At least, in a simplistic way, that is how I look at it.  I lived a good portion of my life living in a haunted house..I was in the "dark".  Life, for me, was like living in a haunted house:

• my past haunted me
• things I was doing or thinking in the present haunted me

Living in a haunted house is not all that different than hanging a hundred pound anchor from your neck and trying to live a normal life with it there.  That sounds pretty radical, I know.  But don't you agree that the more we dwell on things past that were not right, healthy, and "normal", and the more we continue to beat ourselves up for present day thinking and doing, the heavier our burden seems to be?

There are a few ways to eliminate the self induced pressure  of allowing a past to haunt us...and we need to do these if we are going to grow spiritually, grow emotionaly, and grow up period.

• allow God to forgive us....He will, for sure....but we have to make the conscious choice to ask Him to and then allow Him to
• allow ourselves to forgive ourselves.  While it doesn't sound all that easy, it really is if we first allow God to forgive us.....once he has (and again, remember, He will) is there really any sense in NOT forgiving ourselves?
• MOVE ON in the knowledge that we have been given grace by any measurable understanding...just accept it and move on
• know that you may have failures, bad times, dark times, and that you will make mistakes.  Know also that God does not keep a scorecard.  He gives us more do-overs than you will ever know...BECAUSE HE LOVES US SO.

The past is the past is the past is the past.....leave it there and you will not be living in a haunted house.