The Things We Wish Were Not

Sometimes we find ourselves praying and pleading to make some things as if they hadn’t happened or blaming ourselves for what we did or didn’t do and wishing to go back and make a different decision. There are times when 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 and troubles and disappointments follow, we accuse ourselves and ask why we did what we did what we did and what we could have done differently.

All of us at times reflect upon the past, all of us say at times “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 faced with an actual set of circumstances not with what might have been, not with what we might have done, but with what it, and with where we now are—and form this point we must proceed: not form where we were, not from where we wish—but from where we are.

Whatever the mistakes of the past, whatever the regrets, every day we find ourselves as we are, where we are, with what we have, with what the past has taught us, and with the everlasting future before us.

There are failures and frustrations, sorrows; things we wish were not; things we wish we had done differently; things we wish hadn’t happened. But each day we are faced not only with things as they are—but with the blessed assurance that there is a kind and loving and merciful and just, Providence over all, who will help and understand in both justice and mercy, as we move everlastingly toward that future which lies before us. The future has eternal promises and possibilities for each and all of us, if we will reach our from now, from where we are, with faith and courage and work and willingness—despite the things we wish were not, the things we wish had never happened.