It’s easy to allow your past to bring about shame and regret.
I’ve felt this way for a long time.
But I’m starting to truly believe what Romans 8:28 says:
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
I believe that when God says He can work for the good of those who love Him, He even means their past.
He even means the dark stuff. The things we’d like to erase from our history.
That’s how good God is.
So Lord, we humbly ask that you take these parts of our life and use them in a way that can bring more glory to you.
We can use our mistakes to help better guide our kids. We can explain consequences of sin and help them see right from wrong.
Yet, we can also know that when they make their own bad choices, we can meet them with grace that we may or may not have received ourselves.
We can know their own bad choices don’t mean life is over, because you can redeem anything.
The mistakes we made can help us not be quick to judge those who we see living impulsively or destructively.
We can have compassion because we know that often these behaviors stem from a deep pain within.
We can use any regret and turn it into motivation to make sure no one who crosses our path and shares their story with us will ever feel alone, like we may have.
We can be the voice that says, “I’ve been there too.”
We can look at our past and remember that it was you, God, who helped us through.
Looking at where we’ve come from can in itself ignite worship in our hearts.
Our past can help us look deeper into a person, be more intentional, and ask better questions.
Our past can also help us see that humans can hurt us, deeply. And so never to put a person in the spot of “Savior” in our life, because we will be let down by them.
It’s our past that can help us understand the need for forgiveness, every single day. For ourselves and others.
And even when things get hard, we can find gratitude in the fact that you’ve paid our debts in a way we never could.
You are a God who forgives our past, but can still use it.
Let nothing we experience go in vain.
Turn our past into something that points to your goodness and love.
~Kelli Bachara, The Unraveling Blog
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