Regrets

I've got a bad case of the 3:00 am guilts - you know, when you lie in bed awake and replay all those things you didn't do right? Because, as we all know, nothing solves insomnia like a nice warm glass of regret, depression and self-loathing.  ~D.D. Barant



Regrets, as relates to our pasts, are generally defined along the lines of this: as a verb—to be very sorry for, and as a noun—sorrow which is aroused by circumstances beyond one’s control or power to repair. 


About Me: During an interesting discussion with a friend, the topic of regrets came up. The person was quite emphatic and expounded on how much he regretted many of the things he had done in his past. He’s a godly man and his remarks rather surprised me. I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was focusing a lot of his attention on his past as opposed to the beautiful man he had become in part because of his past.


When he asked me how I felt about my past (he knows many of the sordid details) I shared that I don’t have any regrets from it. I explained that for a good length of time I did live with regrets, and that during that time I was an unhappy person because I was focusing on the bad me, the old me, and not what I had become or the me that I could yet become. To me, living with regrets was like carrying a heavy old worn suitcase that keeps opening, allowing everything to spill out. I continued, sharing my belief that God knew me before I was born, He knew every hair on my head, and thus He was perfectly aware of the paths I would take in my life. And, during my travels on those paths, some of which were certainly not nice, good, or right, how I firmly believe that His hand was all over me then, just as it is now. He protected others from me, He protected me from others, and He protected me from me—just as He still does and always will. I explained that when all of that is all connected with the fact that I believe firmly that God’s plan for me has been a constant thing since before my inception, if I regretted my past I would, in effect, be regretting God’s presence in my life. Then I shared my final thought—God, the potter, has been molding me for my entire existence, and while I may not always know what He’s doing, it’s a sure-fire fact that He does. To regret anything would be the same as thumbing my nose at Him. Finally, I shared that while I certainly wasn’t happy about the bad things I have done, I can look at them as lessons learned during the course of growing up spiritually, something that bodes well in transparently presenting myself as an example of what God can do with a lump of clay.

By having faith in the true power of what God’s grace means for all of us, none of us must be bound by regrets over our past.


What About You: Are you able to see beyond your past and set it aside to better enable you to see and appreciate what God has done in your life? If you are carrying a suitcase full of regrets, might the weight of it be limiting the you that you can be? Try to enjoy the fact that your past defines you only if you want it to, and that you do have the choice not to allow it to. You are the you of today, not yesterday.





We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past. But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future.     ~Steve Maraboli