A Decade of Pain and Growth

The entire wall next to her exploded and the nose of an airplane pinned to her to the wall. She screamed in pain as the entire room was engulfed in flames, and then she was silent.

I can't even begin to imagine what it would have been like to be in New York City on September 11th, 2001, as 200,000 tons of steel came crashing to the ground. Even less can I imagine having been inside one of the towers that made up the World Trade Center when two planes being flown by terrorists were crashed into them. That day will never be forgotten and I always hear people say, "I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news." I also remember exactly where I was when I heard the first bits of news that the nation was under attack, and I vividly remember watching the video clips of the attack and college students talking about what they say and what they heard that day in New York.

Though these memories are what make up history, the thing that I remember the most is what my family did that night. I was only seven years old that day, but I can still remember what we did. We drove around White Rock Lake praying for the country in the days that would follow and we also prayed that our President and our military would have the wisdom to know what to do as a response to the attacks. On that same day, Michael W. Smith released "Worship" which was a contemporary worship album, and we were also able to listen to that album for the first time. It was a really peaceful time with God.

All that being said, I am finally at my real purpose for writing and I wanted to tell you guys what I did today in remembrance of that tragic day. This morning I went back to the same placethat I went ten years ago. We went to White Rock Lake and we drove around it and while we listened to "Worship" again, I thought about all that had happened ten years ago. I also realized that we are still living in this amazing country which we call America. We have suffered a lot of pain and grief over the past ten years, but we are still here. We need to thank God for what he has done, but more importantly what he will do.

Being at the lake today reminded me of how beautiful God's creation is and I think that it awesome that we can be a part of it. Thanks for reading this, and I am sorry that is not the best post that I have ever written, but I wanted to tell you guys about it.

Regrets

The need for time travel has never been greater! The mistakes that people are making all over the world are getting worse and worse. From the personal mistake that are just stupid to corporate and governmental mistakes that affect whole companies and sometimes even entire countries, mistakes are inevitable and happen all of the time. Mistakes can range from forgetting your anniversary date to signing a 787 billion dollar stimulus bill, not to single anyone out or anything. Mistakes often leave their tracks; these tracks are called regrets. A regret is that feeling of stupidity or foolishness that haunts a person after a mistake has been made. Regrets are often the result of a wrong decision, and if it is given enough leeway, it can become an obsession that possesses someone. These regrets can rule the way a person lives their life and can even ruin a person's life by causing them to inflict pain upon themselves, sometimes ending in suicide. This result is a huge problem that has manifested itself in this society. Adults and even teens all over the world commit suicide as a result of regrets every day. Though this could happen to anyone, Christians have a reassurance that others don't have. The Bible says in 2nd Corinthians 7:10, "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death." This clearly shows us the difference between the Holy Spirit pointing out a person's flaws in life and a person who is without God, regretting a decision that they made earlier in life. Regrets do not have to possess an individual; it is up to them to allow God to use that mistake as a tool. Pray for those with regrets, and thank God daily for his continual grace and mercy.