“We tend to remember our mistakes more readily than our successes.”

A thought by Mark Batterson, (2015-10-06) from his book, If: Trading Your If Only Regrets for God's What If Possibilities (Kindle Location 916). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

That is so true, isn’t it? Those mistakes seem to haunt us, don’t they?

Mark says, “That’s why it’s harder to forgive ourselves than it is to receive God’s forgiveness. We tend to remember what we should forget and forget what we should remember.”

He goes on, “That inability to forget the sin we’ve confessed is part of our sin nature itself. The fall fractured the image of God in us, including in the amygdala. That’s the part of the brain responsible for storing emotional memories. The strength of the memory is dictated by the strength of the emotion. We quickly forget the moments that don’t make a blip on our emotional radar. But strong emotions, like shame, take sinful snapshots and poster-size them. They get blown out of proportion in the darkroom of the mind.”

Now if this is a problem for you remember this, “One of our fundamental problems is living as if Christ is still nailed to the cross. He’s not. He’s seated at the right hand of the Father, in power and glory. The only thing nailed to the cross is our sin. And once your sin is nailed, it’s nailed.”

It is nailed. As you have confessed it it has been taken care of. It is gone. Just thank God for his forgiveness and go on.

Now if it is a mistake with no sin attached go back and forgive yourself specifically for what you did and learn the lesson from it. You’re not perfect. You blew it. Accept that. You may have to forgive yourself over and over but eventually the pain from it will be gone and you will be able to move forward. The key is to get past the emotion and the shame and move forward. Accept the fact that you are not perfect, forgive yourself, learn the lesson, determine to not do it again and then move forward.

So do you have something in your past that is holding you back?

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