This was originally published on my Saturday newsletter on March 23, 2024.

No mires para atras ni para coger impulso. (Don’t look back, not even to gain momentum.) My paternal grandmother said these words every time someone was remorseful over something they had done. Her words remind me of the story of Lot’s wife – when the Lord was destroying Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19), He granted Lot and his family the opportunity to leave. They fled, but in doing so, Lot’s wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.

How often do we stop our forward momentum to look back? And while I firmly believe in learning from our past and from history, I don’t think it’s useful to keep looking back, stuck in that past. We can’t keep reliving mistakes, living in the places in our memories, or we’ll stall. When we live focused on our past mistakes (or even things outside of our control), thinking I could have, I should have, I would have, we’re focusing on something we can’t change. Career decisions, parenting decisions, mistakes we’ve made in relationships – these are not things we can erase with a Magic Eraser. They’re learning opportunities, not death sentences. And how incredible that we have a God who encourages us to embrace that so fully – who forgives all our past blunders and gives us a clean page to move forward.

Whatever you’re holding onto – whatever regret, whatever hesitation over past decisions – let go of them. You’re not going back to that. And as they say in Rent, “Forget regret or life is yours to miss.”

xoxo

Jenise