Regret

The woman looked behind her, but she was going too fast.

It was then that her present collided with her past.

She had spent too much time looking into the rearview mirror

living a life of regret for things that no longer mattered.

Too often had she thought about situations where she had remorse,

lamenting over what could have happened to put her life on a better course.

The thought “what if’ often preoccupied her mind,

and kept her from progressing and being more gentle and kind.

This was true when mistakes were recalled,

where bricks of judgment and criticism built an impenetrable wall.

It was hard to enjoy life because of things that she considered not right,

always thinking of how to improve everything in her sight.

Smelling the roses was not always an option,

because of the thorns that often obscured her vision.

Then she discovered the One who can take all of our burdens and cares

and she found that she could be free from her past sorrows and snares.

Whatever burdens she asked the Lord to accept

were those that were lifted and no longer kept.

She learned about healing and forgiveness from the perspective of the Savior

and unloaded her soul of past mistakes and bad behavior.

Learning from the past is certainly a great goal,

but not when former regrets encumber the soul.

Christ wants us to feel contrition and sorrow for sin,

but only to the point where repentance and forgiveness step in.

June 2023

“Guilt, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of non-forgiveness are

caused by too much past, and not enough presence.” ― Eckhart Tolle

“It’s nice to look back on your life and see things as lessons, and not regrets.” ― Rihanna

“Worrying about past regrets does nothing to change the past. Your future is where your focus should be.”― Catherine Pulsifer

“If you’re always dragging yourself down with the past, how is God going to lift you up in the future?”― Stephen Arterburn, Regret-Free Living: Hope for Past Mistakes and Freedom From Unhealthy Patterns

David A. Bednar, “Bear Up Their Burdens with Ease”, April 2014

“Thus, the Savior has suffered not just for our sins and iniquities—but also for our physical pains and anguish, our weaknesses and shortcomings, our fears and frustrations, our disappointments and discouragement, our regrets and remorse, our despair and desperation, the injustices and inequities we experience, and the emotional distresses that beset us.

There is no physical pain, no spiritual wound, no anguish of soul or heartache, no infirmity or weakness you or I ever confront in mortality that the Savior did not experience first. In a moment of weakness we may cry out, “No one knows what it is like. No one understands.” But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He has felt and borne our individual burdens. And because of His infinite and eternal sacrifice (see Alma 34:14), He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy. He can reach out, touch, succor, heal, and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do relying only upon our own power. Indeed, His yoke is easy and His burden is light.”

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “O How Great the Plan of Our God”, October 2016

“After the Resurrection, there will be a Day of Judgment. While all will eventually be saved and inherit a kingdom of glory, those who trust in God and seek to follow His laws and ordinances will inherit lives in the eternities that are unimaginable in glory and overwhelming in majesty. That Day of Judgment will be a day of mercy and love—a day when broken hearts are healed, when tears of grief are replaced with tears of

gratitude, when all will be made right.

Yes, there will be deep sorrow because of sin. Yes, there will be regrets and even anguish because of our mistakes, our foolishness, and our stubbornness that caused us to miss opportunities for a much greater future.

But I have confidence that we will not only be satisfied with the judgment of God; we will also be astonished and overwhelmed by His infinite grace, mercy, generosity, and love for us, His children. If our desires and works are good, if we have faith in a living God, then we can look forward to what Moroni called “the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge.”