Move forward

Do you ever think about how much time is wasted worrying about what was done in the past? How a mistake, a bad choice, a negative situation dictates life and current decisions. Seven years down the road I'm just now moving past one choice, one choice, that held the power over my head for so long.

I am just now learning accept myself as I am. To love both my successes and my faults because both of them make me beautiful. Just because I make a mistake does not mean I am a mistake. My life is not a problem to be solved. It's because I've stopped beating my head up against a wall of shame, stopped shouting at the marred reflection in the fun house mirror that I have learned to start cherishing who I am as an individual.

"Yesterday is a cancelled check. The past is not your potential. There are far better things ahead than anything you leave behind. The next five years are a blank canvas-clean and bright. Decide that you will throw all the paint on it you can"

I cannot take back the decisions I've made because they are part of the concrete in my past. But it does not define who I am going to be, not any longer. And I need to leave behind the misconception that I am fundamentally flawed in order to capture all that God has for me. The future is coming together wonderfully, the sketch is being laid out on the canvas, and the painting that comes out of the next five years is going to be magnificently unique.