Each day we are faced with making decisions. Some are unimportant and we hardly give them a thought. To others we may give deep, consecrated prayer because we anticipate their continuing effect on our life. Seeking God's guidance in all our daily activities does help us make wise decisions and prevent the accumulation of mistakes. But what if we are facing, today, what seem the consequences of past history, of decisions we made long ago and now regret? Can prayer help with this?
I had an experience recently that confirmed the importance of being alert to see that we are making wise, God-directed decisions—including the decisions about how we view our past. During a family reunion my brother told me that a friend had passed on. This friend had been a great part of my life during several years in my late teens. I was very much in love with him. However, I married someone else. That first marriage ended in divorce, and I found other personal relationships sometimes challenging as well. Over the years my friend occasionally walked through my thoughts, but we never saw each other again.
Now I was faced with an almost overwhelming sense of grief and loss, surprised at the depth of my feelings. I found myself enmeshed in thinking if only I'd been more alert to family pressures; if only I'd been more awake to see through the influences that caused me to marry someone else; if only we could turn back the clock, and on and on! There was anger, hurt, and the grief-stricken emptiness of "what might have been."
