This post really has nothing to do with manners and everything to do with forgiveness
Or maybe it does.
Manners – a way in which a thing is done, a person’s outward bearing or way of behaving towards others.
For some reason, this phrase, Regrets Only, has been haunting me, dogging me for months.
A few months ago I read a book, Before You Wake: Life Lessons from a Father to his Children, by Erick Erickson, who is considered by some to be the “most powerful conservative in America today” (The Atlantic), not someone I would typically read!
This is not a book review by any means but one paragraph has stuck with me, hence my obsession with Regrets Only.
“What I have learned about regret is we either control it or it controls us. What we do with regret is part of what makes us. We either learn lessons and move on or we let it weigh us down. Life is too short to hold on to things. It is too short not to forgive, because forgiving others means they can no longer control you. Life is too short to be buried by regrets. Learn the lessons from what you regret and move on. Appreciate what you have. Find the silver lining. Above all else, show others the grace and mercy they may not show you. There will be others who will never forgive. They will not forget. They will remind you and call you a hypocrite. But you must show them grace. It elevates you, and it is a reminder that we all do things we should not.” (p67)
Why is it so hard for some to say they’re sorry, to ask for forgiveness, to look for that silver lining (and yes, I know sometimes you have to look really, really hard), to let those regrets go, to move on?
I, for one, am choosing to let those old hurts and regrets go. Life really is too short.
“Forgiveness is the magnet which draws your endless good. It wipes clean the slate of the past to let you receive in the present.” Catherine Ponder
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