Progress is progress.

Years ago, I sat in the dentist's office explaining to the tech how much I hated my lack of care for my dental hygiene when I was younger. I shared how I indulged in sweets without a care in the world. I was filled with so much shame because of the teeth that I had removed because of cavities. As I continued, she examined my mouth and said, " Whatever you’ve done in the past few years has really turned things around. She encouraged me that though I hadn’t made the best decisions in the past, my choices forward had made a huge difference. My current dental practices have resulted in healthy gums and teeth.

I will never forget those words, “you’ve turned things around”. Those words have preached to me and lifted me in more ways than I can describe. So often, we live in the shadows of shame from past decisions, discounting the work and progress that we’ve made to get beyond our mistakes. Progress counts, no matter how small the measure. The enemy would love for you to continue to rehash your mistakes, especially when you are face-to-face with someone who can examine and observe that sensitive spot or time in your life. But God is always highlighting the progress. Encouraging you to go forward.

Don’t allow your past to shape the words of your today and your hope for tomorrow. Don’t allow your mind to keep playing the short film of the memories and the decisions that were not the best. Instead, ask the Lord to help you reframe the losses so that you may hold them as lessons. And for every choice you have made, to turn things around, celebrate it. Acknowledge it as progress toward a better end goal. God has a plan for you and will use the mistakes as stepping stones toward grace for you and others.

Be encouraged,

'Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. '

Philippians 3:13-14