You can't fix the guardrails that you have destroyed in your past. But you can reinforce/restructure/rebuild the guardrails that continue down the road.

This morning, I had a huge thought pop into my head. It was frustrating to me because it spoke right to my heart and some of the situations that I have had to work through in my life and continue to have to work out.

You can't fix the guardrails that you have destroyed in your past. But you can reinforce the guardrails that continue down the road.

A great communicator at a church close to me once used the illustration of placing guardrails in our lives in order to stay away from the cliff of sin. What a great illustration this was for me. Over time, though, I can ignore these guardrails. They can become weak, insecure and move from their original location. If we don't continually look and inspect these guardrails, they won't be very effective. As we go through life, we will begin to start driving on some bumpy road, we kick up some dust, and find ourselves getting way too close to that cliff.

Other times, there are moments when we lose control and forget the rules of the road and plow right through those guardrails. We are driving along and all of a sudden we are flying off a cliff like the O'Doyle's from Billy Madison. The guardrails are mangled, destroyed and unrepairable. Given their state, there is absolutely no way that they would stop a car, let alone a car that is way out of control.

So what do we do? What can we do when these things happen? The only thing we can do when we find ourselves flying off a cliff or way too close to that cliff: Replace, reinforce and restructure the guardrails that continue down the road. Whether you have to move them back to the side of the road, find ways to make them more solid by adding some concrete solutions, or by finding new technologies to build the guardrails that make them better, we have to focus on the stuff ahead.

Forget about that stuff that is behind you. It happened. The question is this: How are you going to use the Grace that you have been given to make things right in the future? How are you going to take advantage of this Grace in order to pursue righteousness and glorify His Name?

Practical Step for me that maybe works for you:
I'm going to take a day this week to examine my guardrails and seriously address those that need to be reinforced. From that, I am going to put people in my life to be responsible for helping me keep those guardrails solid, in place and be like my "Inspector General."

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.- 1 John 2:1-2