Reworking the row

I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. (Philippians 3:13-14)

Focus determines destination. As Denis Waitley puts it, "Don't dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer." Too many times, we get muddled in what 'went wrong'. All we can focus on is the error and not see what can become of the error. I crochet as a hobby - not well, but it occupies my mind and time. When I miss a stitch, or only part of the yarn was pulled through on a stitch, I usually don't realize it until somewhere into the next several rows. As I turn the work, I can see that some 30 to 100 stitches back, something went awry. Do you know what I could do? I could just ignore the error. If I want the finished item to look the way it should, I pull the stitches out, redoing the work entirely back to that 'stitch' that went wrong. In life, we don't get to 'pull out the stitches' back to where we went wrong, but we can bring the 'wrong stitch' to God, leave it with him, and focus on the beauty of what is being created within us now!

Yes, the error occurred. Yes, you might have done something differently. Yes, you could dwell upon what went wrong, but that would mess up today's opportunities to 'do right'. When we err in life, we have this wonderful thing called 'repentance'. We can bring it to God, confessing our failure, and then move on in a different direction. When I pull out all those stitches, I am working BACKWARD. In life, we don't accomplish very much by 'working backward'. If we want to see what led to an error, working backward can sometimes get us to the 'root cause' for the failure. When we allow God to help us see not only the error, but the root cause, we don't spend a lot of time 'reworking' life. We repent, find a new path, and move on. I have come to realize there isn't much I can do with the past - only the present and the future. How about you? Are you spending way too much time 'reworking' the past only to find it is costing you way too much emotional energy and not really helping you move on? If so, it may be time to stop what you have been doing and focus on what needs to be done now. Just sayin!