Pastor’s Pen – By Brian Horrobin
If making a change in your life is something that scares you and tends to have you holding back from launching out, then you need to consider a worse fate: REGRET.
The dictionary defines regret as “a sense of loss, disappointment, or dissatisfaction; a feeling of sorrow or remorse for a fault or act.”
The sad reality of regret is that once it is felt it means the deed has already been done and you can’t take it back.
I have found that there are two areas in life that seem to produce a lot of regret.
They are careless words and anger.
It says this in James 1:19: “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.”
If you have a Type A personality like me, then you know how hard it is to refrain from reacting in a charged situation.
Listening may be the furthest thing from your mind.
In fact, you may not even let the person finish talking before you shoot back with a clever remark.
However, in the end, you may end up eating your quick and thoughtless words.
I once attended a farewell reception for a pastor who was leaving the church where I grew up to take another position.
He asked me if I had anything to say to him, and without thinking blurted out, “I think you talk like a girl!”
I was taken out to the parking lot shortly thereafter and given a lesson from the “board of education” in the back seat of our car before being herded back in to apologize.
Needless to say, I regretted my poor and flippant choice of words!
My regret. Having clergy for my husbands funeral that had no compassion or understanding for my family.
I always new I had this regret ,When recently I lost my Mother it was so abundantly clear how a funeral service should be conducted.
I can’t redo the funeral service , but I can have a proper memorial service for my husband.