Make Peace With Your Past:  Monday Inspiring Word 1

                  

 

To make peace with your past means to reconcile with whatever that happened in the past which is giving you pains and sleepless nights. This comes when we remove every grudge and animosity we have buried in our hearts for long. It is the decision to resolve whatever that caused us trouble in the past which continues to affect our present. 

 

 

It can be the decision to resolve a particular issue you have been having with someone for long. Making peace with your past is also the attempt to come to terms with everything that is still making you afraid, because of what you experienced in the past. A philosopher once said that a man who always clings to the past is like one who runs a race inside a sack. He is making an effort, but many things are drawing him back.

 

 

A man living in one of the eastern parts of Nigeria has the habit of feeding the poor and the needy every Sunday of the week. People came to know him with this particular act of charity to the extent many go in and out of his house every Sunday to feed their tastes and satisfy their hunger. 

 

 

On one particular Sunday, the man decided to feed his guests with shawarma. And it happened that a man who was part of his guests that day seeing that the man had decided to give them shawarma began to insult and curse him. He accused him of trying to kill his guests and hence described the food as poisonous.

 

 People were very surprised because they know that the man he was insulting would not try such an act. Secondly, shawarma is a kind of dish loved by many because of how it is prepared. 

 

When people began to ask him the reason for such utterances, he began to explain what happened to him on the very first day, he tried to eat shawarma. So since then, the mention of shawarma makes him angry and afraid. 

 

We can see that this man was still held by the experience of the past to the extent he allowed it to affect the future. 

 

There are many today who are living in fear of something because of what they experienced in the past. This has continued to affect their confidence and lower their esteem. 

 

When some remember how someone treated them badly, insulted and betrayed them in the past, they feel sad and distressed and sometimes long for revenge. When we are locked up in the past, there is the temptation to feel depressed, broken  and even lose hope in moving forward in life. 

 

 

There are many today who are not even happy with themselves. When some remember the mistakes of the pasts, they begin to live in regrets. We have many who are always worried and distressed about their future. Some people have lost happiness in life, because of the experiences of their pasts. Many people today are still mourning about the mistakes they made in the past.

 

 

Many have problems with people and some families in the past. Because of that, the mention of that person or the family makes them go back to what they experienced in the past. 

 

 

Many of us today are still bearing grudges for someone. When we remember what we passed through in life, we often sigh and feel like killing ourselves. 

 

 

 One thing with living in the past is that it will always keep you backwards. If you want to change your spiritual life, if you truly want to move forward, learn to bury the pasts. Go back and find out why you are still angry with yourself, angry with someone, or angry over what happened to you in the past, make peace with your past, settle it and go forward. 

 

 

Living in the past will make you lose your self-confidence, live in hatred, always sad, feel distressed and sometimes conclude that you are never doing well. There are times when we remember past hurts and betrayal, we feel like crying all day long. This is normal. But we cannot continue to allow our pasts to affect our future. Make peace with your past and move on. 

 

 

To succeed in life, we need more enthusiasm, inspiration, and the hunger to move on despite the challenges ahead. You cannot do this when you are still mourning or afraid of what happened to you in the past. Make a sincere decision to forgive yourself and forgive everyone who has wronged you in the past. They have no importance again if not to draw you back. 

 

 

During the agony and crucifixion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, many of His followers turned against Him. Peter denied Him, the crowd who were shouting hosanna for Him turned back and were shouting crucify Him. Judas betrayed Him, and James and John abandoned the Lord and ran away from the garden of Gethsemane. 

 

 

When Jesus resurrected from the dead, one would expect Him to blame, condemn and express His disappointment to the apostles. But neither in any place did Jesus do that. He knows that those things now belong to the past. 

 

 

 

 

 

To be sincere here, to make peace with what has happened in the past is sometimes very difficult. This occurs when something happens between you and someone you are attached to or the people you never expect that they would betray you.

 

Sometimes remembering the past can be very painful and regretful. The point here is that whenever we try to bring what happened in the past to the present, it must affect your day and when we begin to think over what happened, again and again, is like opening wounds that are ready to heal.

 

When such things happen, we do nothing, if not to continue inviting sadness, pains, fear and regrets. For you to go back to yourself again, you must take a moment and make a decision.

 

Take a moment and cleanse yourself. To become free of the pains and negative influence of the past, make peace with your past.

 

The true definition of the past is that thing it is gone. So let it go.

How can You do that;

 

1.Spend time and talk to yourself first. Convince yourself to accept the pain. Yes, It is painful but tell yourself that is it okay,  that you cannot continue to cry all day long. If you like, take more days and quiet moments doing this.

 

2. Forgive everyone, forgive your mistakes and promise yourself that it would never happen again.

 

3. Take time and think of the way forward. Then make plans on what to do and what not to do.

 

4. Seek for direction from those you trust. Do not share your problems with everybody that you see. Many will still use what you tell them against you in the future.

 

5. Seek the presence of God and ask Him for forgiveness. Let God know your ordeals. Ask for His inspiration and guidance. He will surely inspire you.

 

6. Then reconcile with your past. Make a firm resolution to come out strong.

 

7. Then Come out of your worrying bed and move on with renewed vigour and enthusiasm.

 

In life, we should treat everything that belonged to the past as something that has passed. Learn from every ugly experience and move forward. There is always light at the end of the tunnel.

 

 

May God bless you dearest and give us the grace to overcome our challenges. Amen.

Fr Sanctus Mario