Putting down the baggage

I recently recieved a message via Facebook from a friend of mine that I met in Kindergarten. We remained friends thru our highschool years and the beginning of college until we allowed the time and distance to seperate us. Apparently she has been following me on Facebook for awhile and has seen many of my posts regarding my faith and felt comfortable reaching out to me. She said," Last night after I read your post I got teary-eyed. I embrace my faith and am raising the girls to do the same; some of my greatest joyful moments are when I actually witness it has taken root in thier hearts. however, I want some day to be able to look in the mirror and not see the broken teenager that made so many ridiculous decisions and mistakes that I wish I could take back. I know God has forgiven me but then in my doubtful moments-I wonder how he could. I want to enjoy the grown woman I am now-how do I get past the regret and let go? For goodness sakes-I'm weeks away from being 41." She went on to say that she had been wanting to send me that message for so many months but always felt so weak in comtemplating it. She said that one would think that given she has been an adult much longer than a short-sighted, thoughtless teenager that she would not be in this emotional pit, yet somehow she struggles. I cried when I got her message. The first thing that comes to mind is that I believe all women have felt this way at one time or the other. The problem is as my friend mentiones they feel too weak to admit it to anyone so instead we all walk around with a perfect mask on our face as if everything is ok while inside we are broken. I wish people could just be honest about how they feel. We could be such a great support system for each other. Unfortunately society tells us how we should look and how we should act and more often than not we listen. I tried to convey to her that we are so much more than our mistakes. We all have a past and choices we wish we could do over but it is those things that help build your tesitmony. It's those choices that help us to relate to others going thr those things currently and be able to speak to them with the wisdom of someone that has been there. We need to learn to use the word of God as our mirror. By carrying around the guilt we are carrying a burden we were never meant to carry. Jesus came for us and gives us grace that not one of us deserves. He is the one constant thing in our life. His feelings for us do not waiver. Even when we are not spending time with him as we should he doesn't leave. He is always waiting for us to come back to him. He never leaves us. We leave him. He see's so much more than our mistakes and if he can do that we need to learn how to do that as well. An analogy I gave her was for her to look at her beautiful daughters. If one day they make some of the same mistakes that are causing her guilt today would it change the way she loved them or even the way she looked at them? If they made the mistake when they were 19 would she still see that mistake when they became 41 or would she look past that and see the beautiful daughters that they are? I feel confident that she wouldn't look at them and see their past, her love for them is to great to judge them for 21 years. We need to learn to love ourselves hat much that we can see who we are now and not who we were then. I truly believe that this freedome can only be found in the word of God. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. (Psalm 101:12, NLT) "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. (Isaiah 43:25, NIV) If we can repent from our sins and move on with the knowledge that God has forgiven us we will begin to live life differently. What freedom there is in letting go of the baggage. People will notice that we are different and they will start watching us and asking us what is making the different. This is when we can share our testimony and make disciples which is the whole point of our existence.