Do the ghosts of past regret haunt you with the words “If only?”
When Daylight Savings Time ended last Sunday, the sun rose at 6:35 a.m. instead of 7:35 a.m. because I set back my clocks by one hour.
If only I could change my past that easily by switching back the hands of time.
Hindsight has taught me many lessons, made me wiser.
Even so, I’d like to go back and change poor decisions. Sometimes, I wonder how life would be now if I’d made different choices.
There are also things I wish I’d done…..
For two years, I promised myself I’d visit an elderly friend. But she lived “so far away” and “life was busy.” By the time I went to her home, she had passed away.
IF only I had known….
Regret is difficult to avoid…
If only I had taken a different path,
If only I had made better choices,
If only God hadn’t allowed that circumstance,
If only I had known then, what I know now.
But living with “what might have been” paralyzes me.
Before Paul was an apostle of Christ, he persecuted Christians. The memory of watching Stephen being stoned to death must have made Paul cry, “If only I had known Christ then, I would have ….”
Paul experienced remorse over his actions: “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”
But he received the peace of God. “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord…There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Read Romans 7:15-8:1)
“If only” didn’t hold Paul captive to the past.
Instead, he believed that he was loved by God, saved by grace, and forgiven.
And those facts enabled Paul to say, “…forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Read Philippians 3:8-14)
Like Paul, we get to choose where our mind dwells.
“Whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, good repute, excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things…..and the God of peace shall be with you.” (Philippians 4:8-9)
The only “if only” anyone should regret……is not knowing…..the God of peace.
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Even In This 
This is so true, Karen! I think ghosts of regret do haunt us sometime. I am so happy that circumstances of life often prove that God Is with us during those times we made a wrong choice, but still leading us in another direction that corrects the wrong step!
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You are right. Ever faithful, the Holy Spirit is right there in the midst of our actions….He does not forsake us. But He will discipline and let us suffer consequences. The perfect Parent!
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