Hindsight only favors good vision…
I find myself thinking about past regrets lately. For me, this can come about at a variety of levels – there’s regret over not having written a blog post in say…two months or so. There’s regret over eating that entire pizza the other day in one sitting (ok…I’m not REALLY regretting that one as much as I should be…and for that I have regret as well). There’s regret over not staying in touch with others as well as I should or could. There’s regret over having said some less-than-thought-out statements in the past and there’s even regret over things not said. There are, of course, other things I’ve done in the past that are regret-laden also.
Regret also happens because of things done to us. Myself for example – I’ve been walked over, taken advantage of, tossed to the side, lied to, forgotten, led on, let down, and otherwise hurt in the past. These things bring about some regret as well.
To those who say “I live my life with no regrets!” I say you’re as much full of crap as Chuck Norris has flying spin kicks. Of course you have regrets. The question is – how do you handle your regrets?
All frustrating situations have the potential to be lessons if you can swallow your pride and allow them to be lessons. It does us no good to worry over things that cannot be changed. It only leads farther down into an even deeper and darker pit. We have a choice to learn from the things of the past and walk in a renewed confidence OR the choice to wallow in self pity and apathy. The Bible puts it this way:
“whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:8-9)
As for me – life is all about learning. You don’t learn to ride a bike by not falling off of it and you certainly don’t learn about how to live a life of righteousness without getting your world messed up a time or two. Luckily we have forgiveness that’s unending available to us. That will keep us moving.
You just have to know who you’re moving towards…
