God loves you, period! Someone once said to me, “You can’t change the past, but you can change the way you look at it today and from this time forward.” You can change the way you look at the past! Think about this, if you have experienced something painful, hurtful or even something you regret in the past; today try focusing on this event as how it shaped you into the person you are today. This event changed your life yes, but it also created who you are. By looking at the past from this prospective, you see yourself through God’s eyes, special, loved, and forgiven. We are humans; we make mistakes. We fall short of what God calls us to do and to be. It is hard for us to understand and accept we are forgiven, loved, accepted by God, even all the yucky, painful stuff. We think how can I be forgiven and loved? I know what happened. I know how horrible it was! This journey to love our “self” and seeing our “self” through God’s point of view, is very hard to do. By learning to accept that God loves you unconditionally, always, and forever, your understanding of life, changes. That is why Jesus came into the world, because of Jesus we are forgiven, loved and accepted. Accepted for who and what we are—even our past. So if you can take the past and see how it shaped you into who and what you are today, then you can look at the past in a more positive way. You can then begin to like and love who you are. 2 Timothy 1:9 reminds us, “He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.” God loves you always—all we need to do is learn to love and accept our “self” the way God does. And not let the past control our behavior any longer. God Bless. Amen.