KneEmail - a devotional by Mike Benson associated with Forthright Magazine
Future
THERE'S THE STORY of the social drinker...
He ended up a drunk. He had two sons. They watched his example. When they grew up, they followed in his footsteps to alcoholism. Finally, the father recognized the futility of his life, repented of drinking (2 Cor. 6:17), and through submission to the Gospel, he was received as a Christian into the body of Christ. In making this change, he gained the respect of many. He later talked to his sons and encouraged them to obey the Gospel. They would not listen to their father. Later, the father remarked to someone: "I went too far, stayed too long, and came back too late."
This reminds me of the statement that so many of us have made: "If I could only go back and live my life again!" I wonder if Paul made this statement, and upon making it, realized that the only course open to him was in "forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those things which are ahead" (Phil. 3:13).
THOUGHT: There are so many "ifs," that are simply wasted effort to consider. We cannot go back in our life and have another chance with our children, or anything else that our hearts cry out to change in our past, but we can affect our present and impact our future. (Burt Jones, adapted)
KneEmail: "Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:13-14).