Protection

God's protection is amazing! The last couple of nights I have been taking care of/hanging out with one of my students while her parents are away. We (there were a total of four of us) went out for dinner. As we were coming back we took a corner slowly an SUV crossed over the line and smashed into the front of the car. The girl I was staying with was driving and her spot had the most impact and she is in a lot of pain, but God protected everyone in the car. The worst injury was the car. He blessed us right down to how things were handled immediately after the impact of the crash. One person called the police, the other person began exchanging all of the insurance information and then the driver broke down in hysteria and I was able to sit with her and help to calm her down. It was a HUGE reminder to me that God has a special plan for me and everyone else in the car. If he didn't have a plan He easily could have taken us home to be with Him. It also reiterated a lesson that the Lord has been pointing out to me over and over again over the last week.
Philippians 3:13-14 "No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us."
The specific part that has really tugged a string in my heart is "Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead" While, I have not been working an actual job, but rather doing LOTS of school work, I have had a little bit of extra time to reflect over my life and good things that I have done for the LORD and choices that I made that I would consider to not be wise, or even sinful. I have a problem with "forgetting" The mistakes that I have made I carry with myself for a long time. For example, I made a decision about something when I was a junior in high school and to this day I still go through the "what if's" What if I had done it this way or what if I said it that way. I have a very hard time forgiving myself. There was a situation that happened a few summer's ago which, today, has effected my relationship with a friend. The choices that we make, good or bad, can or can not help us to grow in the Lord. I choose to allow some of these situations to draw me away from the Lord. I choose to dwell on the mistake and hold on to it rather than remember the goodness of God and His grace and His forgiveness. Over and over again I have been reading passages on forgiveness and through my prayer God keeps bringing these different situations to my mind. The main focus has been that God has forgiven me for these mistakes so I need to forgive myself and "forget the things behind" and focus on how God is making me more into His image. One of the biggest steps in healing of self and forgiving self is to focus on how God sees me, and how God sees the people who hurt me or the people that I have hurt. Not only does God's love and forgiveness cover me, but it covers them to. Holding on to these things in "my past" is not helpful to anyone. Forgiveness is the way.