We ALL Have a Past

David Peeking At Us Over His Mom's Shoulder

This is for the young -- but also for mothers of the young as you think of teaching and helping your own sons and daughters.

Do you have an innate ability to "blow it", "mess up", SIN? I do.

 Did you ever say something or do something and think, "I don't know how I will ever be able to show my face again?" If you are human and a bit older than David was in this picture, you have probably felt that way more than once. I certainly have.

Once when one of our children was disciplined for some infraction that has escaped my memory now, the tearful response was to blame Adam and Eve for his or her own childhood frailty. I am that way, too: prone to think or say it was someone else's fault. You have been there, done that also. Human nature is, after all, universal. As a friend of mine says, "we are all made of the same, old cookie dough!"

It is not my intent to say you are not alone in order to give you comfort in your own foolishness and sinful nature. But it is my intent to give you hope. The Bible says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Yes, we have, and we know it. We all have a past and most of us are living with some regrets. The GOOD news is that there is forgiveness with God. There is NO SIN, no wrong thought, no bad deed, no terrible action that is too big for God. He has the answer to every one of your regrets.

The reason for writing about this topic was generated today about something a family member wrote after seeing an old photograph of herself: "This is the age that I thought I had it all figured out...I did not want to listen to my parents. I took my youth and beauty and I sold it to the lowest bidder (the highest bidder would have honored me more and cherished my purity). It's a little difficult to look at these pictures and then look at todays girls and see them make the same horrid mistakes I made. I did notice how I am still sitting like a Lady as [my mother] rightly taught me. How I pray that todays young  ladies would know their worth and compromise nothing. . . I just wish young [people] would trust those of us who have gone before them. . . I guess all I can say is 'just don't do it.'"

When I read of that sorrow, I just wanted to reach out and hug the author. I also wanted to reach out and hug all the Christian kids who are being wrongfully influenced by the philosophies of this world that are so opposed to God's absolute truth. The ideas and the behaviors being touted by this world -- and even by some professed Christians -- have fleeting pleasures that ultimately lead to pain and regret. "Flee youthful lusts," as the Bible warns. I beg you to do that.

A wise lady in our family wrote today: "God's plan is for those who know us best, who know our weaknesses and particular struggles with sin, to guide us during those years when decisions are made that can set the whole course of a life. Girls need protection, and girls need to love protection and not chafe against it. Satan sends some of his most potent weapons into that time when weakness seems so strong to so many. Pride is a big danger, not only pride not to listen, but also pride as adults who -don't know us like our parents do- try to step into God's order and replace it with their ideas of a better, more sophisticated plan."

Romans 12:1-2:  " And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.  Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (NLT)