If you could go back in time, what would you change or choose differently?

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Lanolin

Lanolin

Well-known member
#41
Dec 15, 2018
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#41
Bat soup lol.
I cant imagine its very tasty...and I dont get why sharks fin soup is popular either when you could eat things like one thousand year old eggs.

But then it no longer surprises me what people will eat as forbidden fruit is a temptation to many. I wonder exactly what it was. Maybe it was a durian and God could smell it on Adam and Eve so they even couldnt hide the fact they ate it.
 
Magenta

Magenta

Senior Member
#44
Jul 3, 2015
61,191
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#44
cinder said:
I can't be the only one who has those moments that I look back on with less than pride and wish I could go back and be a better person in, even if they seem minor and possibly silly.
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No, it does not seem silly. If I could be a better or different person even in this present moment, would it make me happier or closer to God? I think some of us have spoken to acceptance of our past, which you seem to have read as apathy and/or lack of imagination. To change even a minor thing could have enormous reverberations on our life. I am reminded of something I read once, I do not recall the source, though its impact was profound, for I understood it deeply even if I cannot even recall the exact words. The gist of it was that looking away from something even for a few seconds can change our lives dramatically. The acceptance of which I speak embraces the following Scripture verse:

 
Lanolin

Lanolin

Well-known member
#46
Dec 15, 2018
23,460
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#46
if you ask someone like Joni Earackson Tada, who is paralaysed from the neck down, from a diving accident at age 19 if she could turn back time..,I think she might have answered with the same scripture.
she went through immense pain and suffering but in the process became as close to God as anyone could be who cannot walk.

when we are young and foolish it is so easy to make mistakes and not even be aware of the consequcences till much later so hindsight is a funny thing, you do not have it till you look back but when you are young you cant look back on anything, as you have no experience....you are innocent ....even if someone warns you, you dont really know unless you experience things.

and how many of us didnt listen or maybe ignored warnings. But how can we predict how life will turn out which is why we need a saviour. If all that pain and suffering I went through was part of Gods way of bringing me closer to Him then in the end it was worth it.
 
cinder

cinder

Senior Member
#47
Mar 26, 2014
4,436
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#47
Magenta said:
No, it does not seem silly. If I could be a better or different person even in this present moment, would it make me happier or closer to God? I think some of us have spoken to acceptance of our past, which you seem to have read as apathy and/or lack of imagination. To change even a minor thing could have enormous reverberations on our life. I am reminded of something I read once, I do not recall the source, though its impact was profound, for I understood it deeply even if I cannot even recall the exact words. The gist of it was that looking away from something even for a few seconds can change our lives dramatically. The acceptance of which I speak embraces the following Scripture verse:
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I think we're pulling on two different sides of one of the tensions I find most difficult in the Christian faith, and that's balancing acceptance of how the world is and faith that God is bigger than all the wrongs (both those done by us and against us) therein and clever enough to use them for ultimate good, with the truth that there are real losses and wrongs and less thans and, as you alluded to earlier in the thread by referencing eating the wrong fruit in the garden, our decisions can cut us off from the best best and put us on track for the best under the circumstances outcome.

I certainly don't want to fault anyone for coming to acceptance of the unchangeable past or a faith that God can bring more good out of it than any of us could imagine and gratitude for the good he has brought. Perhaps for some opening up the possibility of changing the past only encourages them to pour energy into regret instead of more constructive things. For others ( and I'm not about to try to tell people which category they fall in) I think it isn't so much acceptance of the past as avoidance of it and too often we can gloss over our past (and maybe even repentence for our own wrongs) by putting up a spiritual cliche or magic Bible verse to try to convince ourselves and everyone around us that it's not important. I'm not accusing anyone specifically of doing this (mostly because I don't have in depth knowledge of anyone's situation enough to even begin to discern if they're doing it), but out of concern of failing to be honest and self aware with myself, I expect I'll always find something that I would like to go back and do better (even if my life right now is quite good).
 
tourist

tourist

Senior Member
#48
Mar 13, 2014
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Tennessee
#48
GaryA said:
Having all of the knowledge, understanding, and experience of my life (being able to retain it, remember it, and utilize it) would of course be a prerequisite.
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Absolutely, because without that you would probably make the same poor choices again. Those that don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Some smart person said that somewhere.
 
Anthony256

Anthony256

Member
#49
Sep 28, 2019
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#49
tourist said:
Absolutely, because without that you would probably make the same poor choices again. Those that don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Some smart person said that somewhere.
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That said, people who don’t learn from the mistakes of the past are going to make the same mistakes. ‘History repeats itself’
 
Lanolin

Lanolin

Well-known member
#50
Dec 15, 2018
23,460
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#50
well thing is unless you want to be the first to share your long list of past mistakes that need correcting....you yourself can not go back and change it. What God does is forgive those mistakes and helps you overcome them...but you must ask for wisdom to stop repeating those same mistakes.

as for avoidance well for some people avoiding temptation is a GOOD thing as they dont have that armour yet. People learn new ways of doing things His way. Jesus delivers us from evil he doesnt always make us go back there! (although He has made me go back to school...I must have been a horrible child...now am making up for all the times I ignored the teachers by reading books lol)
 
Anthony256

Anthony256

Member
#51
Sep 28, 2019
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#51
In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:6-7
 
P

Prycejosh1987

Well-known member
#52
Jul 19, 2020
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#52
Anthony256 said:
I’ve got lots of regrets about things I’ve done in the past. But if I could go back in time, I’d probably change almost nothing. Why? Well, if you truly go back in time, you lose all knowledge of the future. So you have no ability to correct your mistakes
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Its true, if we went back in time we would not know the future. I would not change a thing. I grew up in the church and even when i hated God because i thought he was evil, i wouldn't even change that. That feeling and God made me who i am today, i wouldnt change a thing. I have no regrets.
 
Anthony256

Anthony256

Member
#53
Sep 28, 2019
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#53
Prycejosh1987 said:
Its true, if we went back in time we would not know the future. I would not change a thing. I grew up in the church and even when i hated God because i thought he was evil, i wouldn't even change that. That feeling and God made me who i am today, i wouldnt change a thing. I have no regrets.
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Wow! Glory be to God.... Stay blessed brother
 
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