should have...could have...would have

Have you ever thought about how much time you have spent in your lifetime ruminating over the mistakes that you have made?? poor judgment calls....decisions that turned out to not be such good decisions....not paying attention to your "logic" or your "gut" about something, and then regretting it big time later....just flat out screwing up......
I bet if we were all honest, we would be appalled at how many hours we have walked down the lane of "should have...could have...would have", as we churned over and over "if only I had NOT done____"....."if only I had not made that huge mistake"..."if only I would have done that a DIFFERENT way"....blah, blah, blah!!! " I am such a loser because I made that mistake...I was stupid....I should have known better"...blah, blah, blah!!
I have been really chewing on this whole concept of "mistakes" lately, because wouldn't you know it.....God has put three things in front of me in the last week, as only HE can so cleverly manipulate those life lessons that he wants ME to learn...and to write about each week to you! The first was a plaque that I saw in a store: "A mistake is evidence that someone has tried to do something". VERY interesting!!! I like that idea!! In other words...nothing ventured, nothing gained. OK...I get it....step out of my comfort zone more and TRY things!!! Even if they don't go the way one had hoped...well, you tried to do something different!! Then, I flipped my calendar and the saying of the month is:
" A mistake is simply another way of doing things" (Katharine Graham) WOW!!! I like that too. You know me...the queen of "re-framing"....what a great way to re-frame what one could conceivably turn into a self-loathing, beat up session. And the third, and of course the most powerful message was this past Saturday at a wedding...the pastor was talking about leaving the past in the past...letting go of our past mistakes and our past hurts and wounds, and looking forward to a hopeful future. And then, he went in for the spiritual jugular as he boldly shared with us that to our awesome God, there IS NO SUCH THING AS A MISTAKE!!!! Everything we do is all part of God's master plan for our lives.....and our gift back to God is to honor HIM by turning ALL of our past experiences (even our biggest screw-ups) into a praise and glory to God. Why?? Because only God can turn even the most shambles of a past into a life of beauty. Our God is an awesome God!!
So, my challenge to you right now is to STOP the negative thoughts about the past and praise God for His endless mercies, grace, bounty, and blessings...and YES, thank Him for the "mistakes" that He allowed you to make, so that you can now be closer to Him, as you look to Him for the true hope of the future.
Blessings,
Cindy