Rather than letting regrets anxiously swirl in our minds, we can take the off-ramp of reckoning honestly with what happened.
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As we age, it’s natural to look back at years past. Reflection can be helpful—an important way we grow in wisdom. But for parents, this process can be painful when there are hardships or negative outcomes in our children’s lives. We may live with feelings of failure as we replay our missteps and ways we floundered as parents. Regrets swirl around and around in our minds on an anxious loop, and we don’t know what to do with them.
Let me propose an off-ramp. It’s not a cure for all that’s broken but a fruitful starting point. As we reflect on regrets with our children, it’s helpful to consider whether the situation or outcome is primarily the result of our sin, our limitations, or our weakness. It’s not always clear-cut and sometimes these categories overlap, but with the Holy Spirit’s help, we can grow in understanding the nature of our responsibility. And this understanding helps us know how to move forward.
