The Things We Wish Were Not

Sometimes we find ourselves praying and pleading to make some things as if they hadn’t happened. And we find ourselves blaming ourselves for what we did or didn’t do wishing for the privilege to going back and making a second decision.

Perhaps most of us, maybe all of us, if we could, would turn back time and make some different decisions and change some of the scenes, if we could do it knowing what we know now. We live so much by trial and error, and sometimes make decisions impetuously, sometimes stubbornly, sometimes innocently, and when failures come, and troubles and disappointments, constantly we accuse ourselves and ask why we did what we did and what we could have done differently.

It is a common practice for all men to reflect upon the past, for all men to say “if I had only known what I know now, I would have done differently.” But this we must remember: Life moves in one direction only—and each day we are forced with an actual set of circumstances, not with what might have been, not with what we might have done, but with what is, and with where we are now—and from this point we must proceed: not from where we were, not from where we wish we where—but from where we are.

Whatever the errors of the past, whatever the regrets, whatever the unwanted events, everyday we find ourselves as we are, where we are, with what we have, with the past profiting for what it has thought us, and with the everlasting future before us.

Despite failures and frustrations and sorrows, despite the things we wish we had done differently, the things we wish hadn’t happened, each day we are faced with things as they are—but with the blessed assurance that the Father of us all is kind and loving and merciful and just, and will help and bless and will compensate in all things, according to His justice and love, as we move everlastingly toward that future which lies before us all. The future has within it, glorious eternal promises and possibilities for each and all of us, if we reach out form now, from where we are, with faith and courage and work and willingness—despite the things we wish were not, the things we wish hadn’t happened.