There was a song by the group Kansas that was very popular when I was in high school called “Carry on Wayward Son”. Unfortunately that became my anthem for roughly the next decade. Let’s just say, I made more than my share of bad decisions.
But thank goodness that I was raised in the church and had a personal relationship with Jesus. He kept bringing me back to himself. And he still does. Every day.
There are at least a few people who think those bad decisions “ruined my life”. I would challenge that. God forgives and forgets. And the Bible clearly teaches that when we confess our wrongs to him he no longer holds them against us.
Why should people have a higher standard for others than what God does? If God can forgive and forget, it seems like others should as well. I don’t feel very good about being used as an example of what not to be like.
The fact is, God has blessed me beyond any measure that I could have imagined. If my life was truly ruined… why am I so thankful? Every day God inspires me to be my best. And I fully believe that he furnishes me with what I need to do that. If my life was ruined… then I guess I must be the luckiest person with a ruined life that there ever was.
I am thankful that God has been with me through all my experiences, good and bad. He said he will never abandon me and I have personally found that to be true. And not only do I feel extremely blessed. I can be extra thankful because I am under no illusion that I earned any of it. It was clearly a gift from a loving God.
I do occasionally lament the choices I made when I was young. That’s my prerogative. But I would appreciate it if others didn’t do that for me.