One thing I have learned so far in my short nineteen years is that living with regrets is a terribly burdening and incarcerating lifestyle. When you dwell on what "could have been" or "should have been", you are inevitably locking handcuffs on your future, binding them to the past, and throwing the key away, squelching both motivation to change and optimism for the future. I know, it sounds a little dramatic, but have you ever experienced a life free of all the chains that regret encapsulates it's victims in? Are you living a life full of today and yesterday's worries? Do the past memories and mistakes still have a grip on your momentum, so much so you cannot bear to move on?
I realize I am young, but God has taught me an important lesson in my life: living with regret is heavy and tiresome, but no one has to live that way. Here's to tackling regret of failure, mistakes, and remorse in order to lead a healthy life full of hope.
Life is about making mistakes, but if you dwell on the fact that you had a mishap you'll lose the opportunity to learn from it and move on. The key to removing regret from your life after a failure is to look at the situation and see what you could learn from it. Failure is a difficult load to carry, especially in a society that plasters only successes on social media. But failure is not an end stop, in fact it could be an open door. Our culture sometimes forgets that God is full of grace when we fall, but grace is what saved us to begin with. No matter how many times we fail, God is our steadfast cornerstone, ready to be of help in urgent need. And yes, He is still in control when we fail Him. The important thing to remember when dealing with regret because of failure is that God wants us to learn from our mistakes in order to proceed in the sanctification process. Learn to love learning, especially after a bump in the road.
This brings me to my next point. Sometimes we get hit hard with suffering, and most of the time it isn't fair. Take Job as an example. Job, in the Old Testament, was a man of reverent faith, a righteous patriarch in his community, and a respectable businessman and father. He was blessed to say the least, but man were those blessings taken away in the matter of minutes. What happened to Job was not fair, but God was sovereign over it all. Although Job was unfortunate in his trial, it came with rewards. Job was strengthened with an endurance of faith, and was made an example to us as suffering people. When hardship enters your life, you must know that God is sovereign over it all. He might need to bring you through a fire to strengthen and refine your faith, or He may need to cut some things out in order to grow you as a person. And when it's all said and done, God can then use your testimony to help those in the midst of their present struggles. Live without regret of mishaps in the past, and remember God is sovereign over your life; furthermore, if He brought you to it and through it, there is purpose for it.
Another thing we often times can become regretful over is longing for something else. When we are amidst a difficult time, or merely another season of life, we sometimes can long to be in a different place. But yearning for something that is seemingly out of reach is one of the most painful conditions the heart can endure. When you find yourself in this position, immediately go to prayer. Tell God the desires of your heart and ask for guidance on whether or not you should pursue those desires, or you should let them remain out of your reach. Ultimately, God is enough. Always. And He can take your regret about not having what you want in front of you now away. But if He says act, or change your position, do so. In times of regretful longing, lean on God fully, and seek His wisdom over everything else.
Keep hope for the future. Live without regret of what once was, or what once hurt, or what once could have been, and pursue righteousness knowing full well that God has purposed each step of your life. He knows your future. He cares deeply for you and your well-being. And He desires His children to live not with regret, but rather take joy in present fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Be a here-and-now kind of person: learning from the past and hoping for the future, all the while remembering the Rock of your Salvation is currently at work in your life to give you peace that surpasses all understanding, and succumb all regret.
