Let not yesterday determine your future. Only use what yesterday taught you as stepping stones to the change you desire.

My brother was a teenager. I was his younger sister by four years. It is often a fact that an older brother’s greatest delight is tormenting his younger sister and mine was no exception. Because I had quite a temper, it was even more enticing to see how far he could go before I would “lose it.” When it had become apparent he had reached the limit of my patience he would run for safer territory laughing all the way, of course.

This particular time he decided his closet was too small to hold his wardrobe and felt quite entitled to bring some of his clothing to my closet. I promptly gathered them up and marched them right back to their original place. Since he was much bigger than me, he repeated the transfer a couple more times before the smoke began to pour out of my ears and He took to flight.

In our house, we had a pantry just off the kitchen where my mother was busying herself with some project. As my brother rounded the doorway into the kitchen I (with all the force I could muster) I threw the first thing I could get my hands on which turned out to be my shoe.

When I was only twelve, I became the youngest member of the city’s women softball league. So you see I was no slouch when it came to throwing. That shoe tipped the dining room lamp and sailed through the open pantry door and hit my mother right in the face. At that moment things began to change in my life.

In my family, my mother was the one who recognized the hurt in me from my father’s unintended rejection. She would try to comfort me with the reason, “he just doesn’t know what to do with girls.” She was my go-to person and protector. I loved her and never wanted to hurt her in any way.

I realized my anger had caused pain to someone I dearly loved. In that moment of realization, I decided my anger issues were a destructive element that I no longer wanted to have control in my life.

Love caused me to want to change.

There was no rule of behavior that brought about the difference. No fear of an of an angry God that brought me to the place of change. No, it was love. The love I had for my mother because she had loved me.

 1 John 4:16New International Version (NIV)
16 “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”And in verse 19 it says, “We love because he first loved us.”

So you see, doing God’s will has nothing to do with rules and regulations, or what we should or shouldn’t do. Because it is all about responding to the glorious love He has showered without reservation, on you and me.

Rejoice in the knowledge that Jesus sees the hurt you carry and the anger you may hold. He also wants to be the Father you deserve and long to know. It is in recognizing His love for us that wins our devotion and gives us the desire to change.