Looking Back

If you could go back in time and give one piece of advice to a younger you, what would it be? Would you tell yourself to buy some Apple stock? Maybe you’d tell yourself to study harder. Mine would be to love Jesus.

We all think back to how different out lives would be if only we could go back. What we don’t understand is one change can alter history.

Take a moment and imagine if you had married someone else. Would you have the same children? Of course not. Would you be living in the same home? Going to the same church? We all envision our lives would be the same but better if we had only done ___________ (fill in the blank). But our lives would not be the same. And nothing’s to say it’d be better.

We all have regrets. We’ve done things we wished we hadn’t. Maybe you were a big spender in your past, but now you’re debt free and know how to handle your money. If you knew yesterday what you know now, would you not be using those credit cards? Who’s to say. Sometimes going through a trial teaches us and gives us a better understanding of things.

Too many of us live in the past. We keep looking back wishing we could change things. Philippians 3:13 states, Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. If you want tomorrow to be different, don’t cling to yesterday. You have to change today.

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“We all do things we desperately wish we could undo. Those regrets just become part of who we are, along with everything else. To spend time trying to change that, well, it’s like chasing clouds.” ― Libba Bray, Author

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You can’t go back, no matter how much you’d like to. Allowing regret to own you keeps you from true happiness. And you need to realize, the decisions we made in the past were based on what we knew then, not what we know now. As long as you learn from your mistakes, you can move forward.

So stop looking over your shoulder. It only keeps you from the Lord’s full joy and inevitably gives you a crick in your neck.

What would you tell yourself if you could go back in time? Please let me know in the comments section.

If you or someone you know are in need of prayer this week, please let us know. We’d be more than happy to pray for you.

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