Regrets

 Maybe it’s something about having a milestone birthday coming up that makes a person reflect on life and the decisions that led them to where they are today. 

For most of my life, I have never been one to dwell on the past. In my thinking, the past is the past. There is no reason to go backwards and wish that things were different.

Until recently.

Let me first say that the one thing I don’t regret, and never will regret, is my children. They are my life and what keeps me going. They challenge me and wear me out, and sometimes I get so overwhelmed with trying to meet such vastly different needs between the two of them. But in spite of difficult days, they will never be a regret. I am so, so proud of them both. And I love them.

However I find myself often battling the “what if“ thoughts. What if I had done this differently, what if I had made this choice instead of that choice… I wish…. I wish… I wish….

I try so hard to silence those thoughts because they drag me down. 

In spite of sometimes wishing I could go back and shake my twenty year old self to do things differently, I come back to two things.

First, I hope that I can teach my children from my own mistakes and that they can be more successful that me. 

And secondly, I ask myself what I can do now and into the future, so that ten years from now I won’t have regrets from these days. 

How do you deal with regrets? How do you turn them into something positive?

“And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” Rom 8:28