Do-Overs and Start Agains
Published Mar 12, 2024
By Gaye Lindfors
I love do-overs.
If I don’t like what I’m writing, I hit the delete key and “do-over.”
If my hair is having a bad day, my brush winds its way through and creates a “do-over.”
If my chicken dish doesn’t turn out…well, I just throw that out.
Wouldn’t it be freeing if we could “do-over” or throw out some of life’s moments that make us cringe?
Pull the words back or stop ourselves from not-smart actions. Stupid decisions we made. Hurtful comments we shared. Hot pants worn. (What on earth were you thinking, girl?)
None of us are immune to engaging in silly, awkward, or embarrassing moments.
However, there are some “do-over requested” moments that are a bigger deal. Big-time, life-changing events happened. They weren’t just silly or awkward or embarrassing. They were sinful.
And we can’t un-do or “do them over.”
Lies, deceitfulness, anger, gossip … just a few of the things most of us would have on our lists, right? And unfortunately, we’d each add behaviors and choices that get even uglier.
Some of those moments can get us stuck in guilt, remorse, self-pity. We can’t let go of decisions that threw our life off course for a bit. Those memories still have control of our emotions, our thoughts, and our choices. Our inability to accept God’s forgiveness, to forgive ourselves, or forgive others, steal peace from our present and have the power to change the course of our future.
Sigh.
We can’t pretend those moments never happened. But we don’t have to let those growing-up or out-of-faith choices define us or control us if we’ve made peace with them and with those involved. We can make amends, stop beating ourselves up, and learn from those mistakes. And then live differently. Live better.
AND … we can remember that there is a God – a loving, faithful, merciful God – who can wipe our slate clean.
Better than a do-over. There’s forgiveness and a start again option.
Think about David in the Bible. We remember him as a great King of Israel, a brave young man who stood up to Goliath and killed him with a stone and slingshot, who was the author of 77 Psalms. He also slept with another man’s wife and then had her husband killed to try and cover up his own sin.
Some scholars believe David wrote Psalm 32 after his adultery with Bathsheba. In this writing, he celebrates what confession and repentance gave him. A chance to breathe again – start again.
“Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be – you get a fresh start, your slate’s wiped clean.
Count yourself lucky – God holds nothing against you and you’re holding nothing back from him.
When I kept it all inside, my bones turned to powder, my words became daylong groans. The pressure never let up; all the juices of my life dried up.
Then I let it all out; I said, ‘I’ll make a clean breast of my failures to God.’
Suddenly the pressure was gone – my guilt dissolved, my sin disappeared.” (MSG)
Simply amazing.
Here are two prayers to help you start again — (God hears you, you know!):
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”
(Psalm 139:23-24)
“Create in me a clean heart, O God; restore within me a sense of being brand new.” (Psalm 51:10 The Voice) (I LOVE those words!)
Confession. Repentance. Forgiveness.
A clean slate. A fresh start.
What do you want removed from your slate?
Tell God where you’ve messed up and ask Him for His eraser…His mercy, forgiveness, grace, and unconditional love.
Make a fresh start.
“Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight! Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt, whose lives are lived in complete honesty!
P.S. May I encourage you to read the entire chapter of Psalm 32? Blessings on your heart, my friend.
