Just because you made a mistake that you now regret doesn’t mean that you should beat yourself up because of it for the rest of your life.
Just think about this for a moment how many times you have done something in the past that you weren’t happy about? It could be anything Lets say that you are an addicted person. You may be addicted to drugs, or alcohol or the wrong type of man. Perhaps you are addicted to stressful jobs that bring you little pay. It doesn’t matter what the circumstances may be. Hey, it doesn’t have to be that harsh. Perhaps you have tried to start your own business or create something in your life where you could make a living doing something you are passionate about and it failed, so you gave up. It doesn't really matter. But every time you turn around, you are falling victim to the same thing over and over again. Hey, it happens. We all fall down. But the good thing about it is we get up. Just because you fell down doesn't mean you have to stay down. Get up! Why are you still sitting there? We all make mistakes. But the great part about it is that God allows us an opportunity to learn from our mistakes and move forward. Just because you fall down today, doesn't mean that tomorrow you must remain down. Ever slipped out in public and actually fell down? Jumped up real quick, didn't you? The next thing you did was looked around and prayed that nobody saw you. Just as quickly as you bounced up from a real fall, you can bounce back from a figurative fall. One thing that I have noticed from speaking with a lot of people is that they understand that we fall down but never understood that we get up too.
No matter what the circumstances are in your life that might have tripped you up, no matter what you have been through, no matter what happened in your past, you can always get up and make changes, right now, that will forever banish or make obsolete, the bad things that caused you to fall in the past. Don't get me wrong...I hear some very legitimate sounding excuses as to why people feel that their life will forever be the way that it presently may be. I hear things like "I was molested when I was young." "My mother abandoned me when I was two years old and left me because she was out chasing the pipe." "I have an addiction. How can I possibly get a job that pays more than minimum wage." "I don't have an education. How can I ever expect to get a good job?" Stop living in the past! We all fall down. But remember, "A Saint is just a sinner who fell down and got up." Your past should be a reference point, not a residence. But so many of us continuously live in the past. We went out and bought a welcome mat and promptly placed it at the door of our past. We can't break away from it. We wear it as some sort of badge of honour because we simply won't let it go. Just because you made a mistake or circumstances led you to do something that you now regret, doesn't mean that for the rest of your life you will have to beat yourself up because of it. Doesn't matter if you made two mistakes or three. Heck, it doesn't even matter if you made over a million mistakes in your life. What matters is today, right now.
You know the mistakes that you've made because you have that mistake as a reference point now and for the rest of your life. You weren't born for sorrow. You weren't born to be a doormat for others to wipe their feet on. You weren't born to be used up and then disregarded. You were born to glorify God and live a happy and abundant life. And if you aren't living that way, it's simply because at some point, you fell down. But now is the time to get up and start living the life that you were born to live. And that is a life of purpose. That's a life of happiness and abundance. Now, you ask, "How do I get out of the past and get up?" Well, I would like to say, "it's simple." But that wouldn't be the truth. There's nothing simple about it. It's a daily process that you must work on. You have to be committed to making changes in your life. You have to believe that God has a purpose for you. You will have to work on you. You will have to realise that what happened yesterday, is gone. You can never get that time back and, therefore, there is nothing you can do about it. But right in front of you is another minute or another hour or another day, week, month, year. Those things haven't happened yet, so you can start to orchestrate your present so that your future will be more to your liking.
Start by telling yourself, over and over and over again, “My past has no bearing on who I am right this second. And, therefore, is not important. I am here to glorify God. I am God’s Child and therefore, worthy of greatness”.
If you take this simple phrase and say it to yourself all day long, over and over again, you will soon start to notice changes in your life. All of sudden, without even thinking about it, you will start to pack your old baggage from the past and move them to a closet that you will lock and throw away the key. And when you get stronger in your faith, you will find yourself selling the whole house and moving into a completely different and new neighbourhood- one that is completely different from the hood you used to live in.
And always remember: A saint is just a sinner who fell down and got up
