Quote of the Day - April 15

If you have had something painful happen to you, don't let that experience be the focal point of your life. Stop talking about it; stop bringing it up to your friends. You must get beyond it. Unless you let go of the old, God will not bring the new. It is natural to feel sorrow and to grieve, but you shouldn't still be grieving five or ten years later. If you really want to be whole, if you really want to get well, you need to move on with your life.

Too often we keep reliving the painful memories of the past, negating God's desire to bring healing. Just as we are about to heal, we start talking about our painful experience again. We bring it up to our friends. We start reliving it, seeing it in our imagination. All of a sudden, we can feel those same emotions all over again, as though we were tearing up the old wound. It will never properly heal until we learn to leave it alone. Remember, your emotions follow your thoughts. When you dwell on painful experiences in your past, your emotions go right back there with you, and you feel the pain in the present. You can relive something in your mind and feel it today just as vividly as when it happened twenty years ago.

You need to make a decistion not to allow yourself to relive that painful experience. You need to realize that it is not doing you any good. It will only get you upset and discouraged. Refuse to go back there emotionally; refuse to dredge up negative emotional memories. They will do you no good; in fact, strongly felt negative emotions can hold the potential to severely strifle your progress.

Excerpts from Your Best Life Now