“Don’t ruin a new day by thinking about yesterday. Let it go.” ~ Unknown
- The things said.
- The things unsaid.
- The things done.
- The things undone.
I think it is safe to say that any one of us, more often than not, could easily make a “regret list” about the things said or unsaid, done or undone the day before, week before, month before, or years before. It is a part of our human nature, sadly, to beat ourselves up. Even when we know that it is not productive, we do it anyway. We blame ourselves for all sorts of things and that blame often inhibits us from going further in life.
While we should not give ourselves a free pass for things, at the same time, we should not allow those things to hold us down, to keep us from going on in life. If we allow them to hinder us, we are not becoming the kind of people God is calling us to be. Instead, we need to learn from the things done wrong so that we can be better people.
Not only do we not need to bog ourselves down by dwelling upon yesterday’s personal failures, we also need to refrain from bogging others down by dwelling upon their failures. So often, we are prone to blame others and keep reminding them of their misgivings. In doing so, we prevent them from growing as they should. That is a terrible disservice to them. We would not like it if they did that to us. Why should we do that to them?
The old saying, “Live and let live”, certainly comes to mind. Keeping an attitude of forgiveness for ourselves as well as for others helps us to look ahead. Letting things go that can do us no good if we dwell on them is one of the healthiest things we can do — for ourselves and for others.
FAITH ACTION: Ask God to bless anybody you may have wronged and to give you the insight needed to learn from your past.