Dealing with Difficulties – Regrets

One definition of regret is ‘sorrow aroused by circumstances beyond one’s control or power to repair’. Regret implies pain caused by deep disappointment, fruitless longing or unavailing remorse.

Regrets might be unavoidable; they are also unproductive on their own. They take our attention away from Our Lord and Our Friend, being the center of our lives. Regrets focus attention on what has been lost, with little attention to what might have been gained in the process. We need to acknowledge that we are human, and that every human makes mistakes. It has been said that the only time we really fail is if we choose not to get up and live again. We need to be willing to take risks and learn from our mistakes.

To suffer the loss of hopes and ideas can feel devastating, and for some it may feel paralyzing, sapping our energy for the ongoing journey through life. I can be a form of self-hatred. We may not have become the people we imaged ourselves to be. If this is so, then our regrets and virtual unhappy self-approval assessment. should be seen as merely as a way to a re awaking of what it means to have Our Lord and Our Friend front and center of our lives. The way to deal with regret is not to ignore it but to acknowledge and accept our mistakes, take responsibility and ask the Lord for forgiveness and help to move forward.

King David gives us a great example of how to deal with regret in Psalm 43:5 “Why are you downcast oh my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God”. We can speak to our soul too.

2 Corinthians 12:9 AMP “But He said to me ‘My grace My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you (sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully); for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in (your) weaknesses. Therefore I will all the more gladly glory in my weaknesses and infirmities, that the strength and power of Christ (the Messiah) may rest (yes, may pitch a tent over and dwell) upon me.” How encouraging is that!

! John 3 Verse 1 “Look at how great a love the Father has given us, that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the world does not know is is that it didn’t know Him”.

As we continue to grow, to know and to live “in’ Christ Jesus, regrets will lose their power over us and we will shine the light of the Gospel of our Lord and Friend into the world around us.

God Bless.

Kath