As you are reading this, are you really happily married? Or are you still searching for the perfect guy/girl to sweep you up your feet? Do you sometimes tremble at the thought of a relationship? Or do you glow when you think of an old-time affection. Do you sometimes feel like, gosh! “It should have been”… or “that was meant to be my soul mate”…Have you ever walked away from a relationship feeling like you have lost it all or a new chapter of life is about to emerge…’not knowing where to start from again…’how do I begin to love again, How do I leave the past behind me…how do I move forward? There’s HOPE!

So, because a lot of us spend too much of our lives in that junkyard called regret. We tend to focus more on what might have been, could have been, and should have been. Maybe we think that by replaying it over and over we can change the outcome. But we can’t. The only thing we can control is what we do today, in the present.

The fact is that, the more we replay yesterday, the further we get from today’s opportunities. And the further we move away from today’s opportunities, the tougher the road back becomes for us. Opportunities never look as good coming as they do going. And they wait for no one, so we need to be attentive and grab them. They come in many forms, and they can come from any direction. But one thing’s for certain: they can be seen and seized only if we live in the present.

Whatever has happened in our life in the past, has happened for a reason and a lesson. And since we cannot undo it no matter how hard we try, let’s wipe the slate clean and go on to what’s next.

We all make mistakes. Jonah’s mistake caused a storm that threatened the lives of everyone around him, and ended up taking him all the way to the bottom. But that’s not the end of his story: “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to God. And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time” (Jnh 2:1 & 10-3:1).

Our God is a God of second chances—and third, fourth, and fifth ones too! “They are new every morning” (La 3:23). Today is a gift—that’s why it’s called “the present.” So repent of the past, seize the present, and start living again!

May God help us all!

Yinka.