Rub a little dirt on it

How often do you find yourself looking back at years gone by, and questioning or regretting the decisions you made in the past. If you are anything like me, you probably do this on a fairly frequent basis. The cliche of "hindsight is 20/20 is very true, and many times in our lives we get caught up in looking back, at our mistakes, failures, better times, the good old days, and we fail to look to the future. Today, I want us to take a few minutes and look at the future.

Last night I was watching Dave Ramsey's Internet broadcast called "The Town Hall for Hope" and my hope is that all of you were able to witness this event. If not you missed a wonderful event packed with information and a strong Christian Worldview of the times that we are living in. While listening to the message that Dave was bringing I found myself looking back at the past, as I do often. I began to wonder why it is that I didn't listen to the wisdom of those that were in my past, and why didn't I focus on the future. Obviously I didn't come up with an answer to that question. I have never been able to answer the question of "why" when it comes to matters of the past, the only answer I can come up with is "because... I don't know, I guess I was young and stupid". Be that as it may, Dave brought up a wonderful point last night, and it is my desire to share it with you today. This will be the Beach Bum version of what I got from Dave Ramsey, so please, if you witnessed the program, understand, this is me, not Dave Ramsey speaking.

Why do you we look at the past with regret? There is nothing that we can do that can change the course of the past. Yes, I have made some bad decisions, I have failed, fallen flat on my face, been picked up, and fallen again. That is what we call growing. Think of your children, when they begin to walk, they fall, many times, but they get back up and continue to try to walk. Eventually that child will walk without falling, however there may be a stumble every now and then. Over time the stumbles will become non existent. It is the same with us, as we live our lives. We all will fall at some point, or have fallen. Some of us more then others, because some people learn from their mistakes quicker then others. We may wonder if we will ever get it right, and the answer is, if we are willing to look back on our mistakes, not with regret, but with an attitude prepared to learn from the mistake, then yes at some point we will get it right. You see failure breeds success. Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln, and many others were viewed as failures during their life, because they had failed numerous times before learning from their mistakes. Edison created many, many failed light bulbs before creating one that worked successfully. Abraham Lincoln had failed law practices before becoming one of the greatest if not the greatest president in United States history.

So the question I have for you today, and I am asking myself also. What are you going to do with your failures? Are you going to continue looking back at them and regret all of your past decisions, or are you going to move forward determined not to make the same mistake twice? This applies to every aspect of your life. Finances, relationships, work, child raising, and how abut this, our relationship with God. You see in Romans 3:23 we are told "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". That means just what it says, yes we have all sinned, but what are you going to do with that sin. Are you going to lay around in that sin and continue to find yourself falling short of the mark of God, or are you going to learn from that sin, and repent from your sinful ways, and strive to meet the mark of God. I pray that we all choose to learn from our failures, dust ourselves off and move forward.

As I close I would like to share a little story with you, from my childhood. My Dad taught me how to play baseball. We could often times be found in the backyard playing catch or swinging a bat. Now any of you who have played baseball or softball know that at some point you are going to be hit by the ball, and lets be honest, the ball hurts. Now Daddy would tell me get in front of the ball, however I was scared, cause I knew that if the ball hit me, it was gonna hurt. Well low and behold I got hit by the ball, and being a young kid, I cried. Now Dad would look at me, and ask me some simple questions, "are you bleeding?, is it broke?" those sorts of questions, and then when I had calmed down enough to be rational he would embark his wisdom on me by saying "rub a little dirt on it and go on". Now this may not be the most hygienic remedy to our problems, however there is a lot of truth to his statement. When you fall down, get hit, make a mistake, whatever the case may be, don't let it stop you, instead rub the spot long enough that you will remember it is there, mark the spot with a little bit of dirt, then get up and keep going.

I hope you have found this post to be helpful. It is my desire to share what I am going through with you in hopes that you will grow in your walk with the Lord each day. Continue to look for opportunities to share your faith with others, and find your way this weekend to a local Church where you can fellowship and worship with other believers.

Until next time,

Clear Skies, High Surf, and Sandy Feet!!!