There’s a song that the Beatles made famous entitled, “Yesterday.” The lyrics start with, “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away, now it looks as though they’re here to stay, oh I believe in yesterday. Why she had to go, I don’t know, she wouldn’t say. I said something wrong and now I long for yesterday.”

These lyrics look at a yesterday with regrets over what might have been, and possibly over what could have been done differently. If only yesterday would return; even if just for a moment. If only we had a do over. Another popular song states that living life is like having an hourglass that is glued to a table. There’s no rewind.

Many of us, no doubt, have moments in our yesterdays which we would like a “do over” for. If only there was a Mulligan which we could take, like in a friendly game of golf. That way, if you make a decision or take an action which you regret, you could just simply declare a Mulligan and do it over. You know what though? I’ll bet it wouldn’t be very long before some other event occurred where we would wish that we hadn’t already used up our Mulligan; wishing instead that we could use it now, seeing the newer event more worthy of the Mulligan use than the previous one.

There is another viewpoint that we could reflect upon here. The fact is that we are exactly who we are and exactly where we are in our life, because of the path that we followed to get here. Although there are probably many events that we all would “do over” in hindsight, the fact that we would do them over reveals that we now see that there were probably other options or alternatives. At the time, we probably didn’t know about those alternatives or understand their merits.

This reveals that we have learned from those choices. They have helped us to become better and wiser and people. Those moments, are not just moments to regret because of what might have been, but rather they are experiences which we can be thankful for, since they helped mold and change our understandings and perspectives, causing us to be a little bit wiser and more mature.

We need not merely regret our past choices. We may also see them as the very experiences which the Holy Spirit has used to gently refine us. If we’re not making any mistakes, then we’re likely not experiencing enough of life. Be bold; give life your best shot. God will see you through. After all, yesterday can be viewed as the day you tried and learned something new about yourself and grew because you didn’t do everything perfectly.

Blessings!

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