Never Again! Are You Sure?

Be careful of saying "never again." Instead, understand why and where to apply it.

Strange title, don't you think? I was thinking about how many times, after the fact of things occurring, we say to ourselves "never again." That we won't do something again because of the impact or result it had on us. This applies to both the positive and negative things in our lives.

Take a negative relationship for example, which many find themselves a part. We often tell ourselves that we will never fall into a negative relationship again, only to find ourselves repeating the same pattern and lo and behold, we're right back to where we once found ourselves. We might even say "we're back to where we started." Or we may ask ourselves why are we doing this again. But we don't normally think of the reasons we have for those things we do until we're right in the middle of them once again.

“You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. — Ephesians 4:22-24

Then there are the positive things that existed...that perhaps were overshadowed by a negative situation. And again because of the pain, angst, or hurt felt by the negative aspect, we tend to shy away from the new positives that come our way. And again we may ask ourselves why are we doing this again.

Those are just a couple of examples. The positives and negatives can consist of anything that happen in life. I can tell you though that the answers we get to the "why are we doing this again" question are vastly different dependent on whether our situation is a negative or positive one. In receiving those answers, we learn lessons that will keep us from repeating those negative patterns yet at the same time teach us why to stay in what's positive.

Be careful saying never again but understand why and where to apply it without shying away from the positives while letting the negatives go!