When I miss a putt or just have a bad hole in golf I have a hard time moving forward to the next hole. As golf mimics life, the same thing happens to me a lot in life. When I screw up I have a tendency to keep looking back. Well, I’m here to say you can’t look back. Looking back is only OK if you are trying to learn from your mistakes. Beating yourself up and dwelling on mistakes just feeds the devil, who wants you stuck and not moving ahead.
God knows what you have done and will do. He knows you’re not perfect and will make mistakes. Although He expects you to learn from your mistakes, He doesn’t expect you to get stuck up in your mistakes. He expects, and wants, you to move forward. To move forward to Him. And stay positive, not negative.
If you are into golf, there is a pretty famous book by a sports psychologist entitled, Golf is Not a Game of Perfect. Watch any pro tournament and the best players in the world hit errant shots. They screw up. But they recover because they look forward.
Life is not a game of perfect. It’s filled with ups and downs, and offshoots and even dead ends. The key to life is to keep moving forward. Understand that life is not a game of perfect. I’m not saying it’s easy to not dwell on the past but the past is just that—the past. Treat it as such. Work on moving forward and forgetting. And God is always there encouraging you forward—if you let Him.
Keep moving forward today and every day. And have an EXCEPTIONAL time doing so!