Regrets

Oohhhh. I have a few. Do you?

In the past, if I had a sleepless night, I have run through all of the regrets I have.

What a waste of energy. I feel like that is a perfect way for my day to get derailed. And, God is certainly not behind that.

In some situations, there aren’t “do overs” and sometimes our miss “takes” have some serious consequences. Sometimes we have done things simply out of ignorance. Other times, we have done things out of rebellion. Sometime we have deliberately done things or deliberately not done things without truly understanding the ramifications. Have you ever done something even when you were “old enough to know better?” Yea, me too.

How do you deal with your regrets?

Here is what I try to do:

a) realize and admit to the misstep, mistake, sin — whatever it is.
b) recognize that there may be some damage that cannot be reversed
c) if I was doing the best I knew at the time, accept that
d) ask for forgiveness from God and, if possible, from the others who were impacted
e) forgive myself
f) bring it back to God when I am stuck at any one of these steps

As humans, we make mistakes, missteps, and we sin. Sometimes we do this out of ignorance and sometimes it is very deliberate. And there are times that the aftermath of our decisions has some devastating consequences. We are sinners and we are living and working with other sinners. It can be ugly out there. It can be ugly in my heart.

But, God — He takes all of it. He can work through all of it. He can handle all of it. He can forgive all of it. He can redeem all of it.

God can.

Let Him do what only He can do. It won’t make everything rosy and perfect. But, He will bring it together in a message of love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and redemption — over time.