The Terrifying Land of Coulda Woulda Shoulda

Today is “Toss Away the ‘Could Haves’ and ‘Should Haves’ Day. In other words, it’s Laurie Davies Day. I kid, but kind of not really. Sometimes I feel like I am where leads go to die.

Then other times, I see that I wasn’t ready for the leads that “died.” Parts of Laurie had to die first. New growth—sometimes slow and steady and sometimes explosive—had to take the place of the dead stuff. If there’s a national day for that, I’m here for it because I like Laurie at 51 a whole lot better than I liked her at 31. (Why am I talking about myself in third person, like I’m Marilyn Monroe or Hercule Poirot?) 

Point is, when I saw I was wearing chains, I asked God to clip them. That was loads of fun. 

When I saw pockets of pride in my heart, I asked God to go get it all. Let’s just say that’s an *ongoing work.

When I saw my finger pointing out, I asked Him to point it in. Trust me when I tell you, that pointer finger didn’t go down without a fight.

It’s nice to have a day to toss the could haves and should haves. The notion of writing them down and burning them is fine. But for the next 364 days, that burn pile’s gonna get big. Friends, the way to live without regrets is to keep short accounts … to tell God every day where we’ve fallen short. Where regret or missed opportunity make us wince, we can ask God to restore! Our Father is a good Father. He sure isn’t in heaven wringing His hands over how we messed the whole thing up. He’s creative. He guides us. He forgives. And, yes, sometimes He prunes. But there’s nothing He’s pruned away from me that I’d like to go back and get. Not one thing.

What about you? How do you keep short accounts? I’d love to hear from you.