Regrets

I've heard a thousand times "I have no regrets". This statement is usually followed by something like "All those mistakes have brought me to where I am today!" As if the mistakes made previously in life are those that HAD to be made in order to make this wonderful person sitting in front of me. But if you know me well, you know that I pick symantics apart. I pick silly phrases apart and make fun of my husband for saying the cliches like "For Pete's sake" (Who is Pete?). So I have to think about this common response. Are you saying you do not regret sinning? Are you honestly saying God HAD to use your sin to make you a godly person? Well, then I have to say I disagree. It is NEVER God's will for us to sin, to be separated from His will.I have to say to the many many MANY times I've made the wrong decisions and walked in the ways of sin instead of the ways of righteousness, I regret! I regret not being more obedient, I regret making decisions that displeased God. I regret making steps outside of God's will. I regret those sins. Sure, I agree that God used those mistakes, and turned what could have resulted in death and my sentence to hell, to teach me lessons, to show me His love... but it wasn't his ULTIMATE plan. He could have created me to be who I am today without me going through the sin to get here.
I have regrets in my past. I regret that I dated anyone other than Dave Ciske! I may not have been impure in dating relationships, I just know that it wasn't God's will. And I don't believe that those dating relationships (my boy-craziness) makes me a better wife to my husband. Or that those relationships taught me how to love my husband. I DO believe that Dave and I are meant for each other, that it was 100% (if not MORE) God's will that we married (10 years ago this January!!!!). But I believe it would have been true whether I dated or not. So I regret that my heart was not 100% reserved for Dave and only Dave (and I praise God, that even through a Boy-crazy teenhood, I was blessed with such a wonderfully terrific godly man!).
I say these things because I wish that regrets would hold the negative definition it was intended to hold. That we would all realize that to have regrets is a BAD thing.
By Definition it is "To feel sorrow or remorse for (an act) or to be very sorry for"
I just wish we could live our lives with the goal of having no regrets. To love our spouses so that if ever on a death bed facing one another you look back with NO regrets. To see our children grow and move out of our homes, to live independently knowing we raised them right, that we were there for them, that we put them in proper priority order (GOD, Husband, Children, Church, Then work), with NO regrets. To never miss a ministry opportunity, a divine appointment saying I wish I would have, I wish I could have... but to have NO regrets.
And when we fail, as sinners we inevitably will, that we won't look back and say "oh well, it builds character" but instead I pray we have such an intense sorrow and remorse over the actions to remind us to live according to God's will. God can use you even if you don't have a shady past. God can still use an obedient heart (and I dare to say, he'd prefer it that way!).
I pray you will join me in this quest. To live life in God's will. To seek Him, to make decisions that will not cause regret later.
As little as working so much, while neglecting your family (I promise it is NOT worth the amount of money you will earn to miss out on your babies growing up!) or as serious as living a life of worldly "fun" while believing you still have time to come to God ("Oh my, what a great testamony it will provide!"). What profits a man to gain the whole world and yet lose his own life? (mark 8:36).
I want to live with no regrets! I plan on starting today! Join me!