{"id":14264,"date":"2017-05-28T08:55:09","date_gmt":"2017-05-28T12:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dougbittinger.com\/thoughts\/?p=14264"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:37","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:37","slug":"avoiding-regret-repentance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/avoiding-regret-repentance\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoiding Regret and Repentance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"regret<\/a>We all experience regret over things we\u2019ve said and done \u2013 or didn\u2019t say or do when we should have. The Bible says that if we repent of our wrong-doings, God is swift to forgive us. People may not be so swift to forgive, so it is best to avoid doing things that cause anguish in the first place.<\/p>\n

Regret vs. Repentance<\/h1>\n

Regret is a feeling of sorrow over something we\u2019ve done.\u00a0 Our regret may be over the knowledge that we have inadvertently hurt someone, or it may be over the fact that we got caught doing something we thought we\u2019d get away with.\u00a0 Either way regret is sorrow, but not necessarily knowing that we were wrong in doing something.\u00a0 In fact we may feel regret now, but if the opportunity arises again, we may well do it again because we still feel we had the \u201cright\u201d to do whatever we did \u2026 we\u2019ll just be more careful not to get caught.<\/p>\n

Repentance literally means \u201cchange of heart\u201d.\u00a0 When we repent of an action or attitude, we come to see our behavior in a new way and turn away from it entirely.\u00a0 If an alcoholic or drug addict repents of that habit they come to see their actions as being destructive to themselves and those around them and turn away completely.\u00a0 Their body may still crave the substance they were abusing, but they will not give in to that craving because they hate what they were doing.\u00a0 When we repent of any sin, be that sin substance abuse or gossip, we come to see that sin from God\u2019s perspective, not our own, and will turn away from it permanently.<\/p>\n

The Better Way<\/h1>\n

Naturally the better course would be to avoid trouble all together so we do not have to feel regret which leads to repentance.\u00a0 Proverbs 27:12 says, \u201cThe prudent see danger and take refuge, the simple see the same danger, keep going and pay the penalty\u201d (para).\u00a0 Why do we do that!?<\/p>\n

Confirmation Bias<\/h2>\n

This is a psychological term for the built-in tendency to seek out and accept information that supports or confirms our own opinions, beliefs and decisions \u2013 and to avoid or discard information that refutes our beliefs or shows our decisions to be faulty.\u00a0 In the passage related above, the word translated as \u2018prudent\u2019 means \u2018wise\u2019, and \u2018simple\u2019 means \u2018naive\u2019.<\/p>\n

How to Be Wise<\/h2>\n

The time to avoid disaster is before you get there, not after you find yourself knee deep in the tar pit.\u00a0 Part of this is recognizing that all points of our life are interconnected, not isolated events.\u00a0 Prudent people recognize that the present becomes the past, and that the past influences the future, which will come back to be our present.\u00a0 Naive people think that present becomes past and stays there.<\/p>\n

To prevent this we need to keep our eyes open and honestly assess the outcome of our actions, before we get into those actions and situations.\u00a0 To do that we have to actively lay aside our confirmation bias and assess our plans according to God\u2019s will.\u00a0 We may have to sacrifice some short-term happiness or fulfillment, but in avoiding a trap we will gain long-term peace.<\/p>\n

Do not coast along hoping all things will work out in the end.\u00a0 At each cross-road, pull out the road map of God\u2019s word and see where each decision leads.\u00a0 If that destination is not someplace you want to end up; take the other path, even if it appears less attractive at the moment.<\/p>\n

A Prayer for Wisdom<\/h1>\n

Andy Stanley offers this short prayer for wisdom and suggests that we each pray it at the start of every day: \u201cHeavenly Father, help me see trouble coming long before it gets here. Give me the wisdom to know how to avoid it and the courage to act on that knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our biggest problem is that we often do see trouble on the horizon, but our confirmation bias leads us to pretend it\u2019s not there, that we won\u2019t get caught, that it won\u2019t affect us<\/strong> that way, that it will be okay because we see something we want in it and don’t see the consequence that goes with it.<\/p>\n

What are you trying desperately not to see?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all experience regret over things we’ve said and done – or didn’t say or do when we should have. The Bible says that if we repent of our wrong-doings, God is swift to forgive us. People may not be so swift to forgive, so it is best to avoid doing things that cause anguish … Continue reading “Avoiding Regret and Repentance”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[78],"class_list":["post-14264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-matters-of-faith","tag-christian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14264"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20668,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14264\/revisions\/20668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}