My gifts for Jesus

Do you ever relive events in your life or replay scenarios over and over?  Well I do.  These are my "Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda" moments.  I'm sure you know what I mean.  You are all alone and start thinking about an event or situation that happened in your past.  You start thinking "I wish I would've said, or if I get the opportunity I'm going to say.."  This happens to me a bunch.  Sometimes it is over something recent, but more often than not it is over something that happened months or even years ago; things I can't let go. 

Some people have memory boxes in their closets that they pull out and look through to help them remember the good times.  Well the Lord showed me that I have "Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda boxes stored in my mind that I take down, open up, and relive events/situations that have happened.

I realize that reliving these events/situations isn't helping me.  I have heard people say before, "Give it to God and let it go."  But I never understand how to do that, until now.  The Lord gave me a mental picture of what it means to “give it to Him and let it go.”  I would love to share it with you.

I put each event/situation in a box and wrapped it up with a pretty bow and labeled it with 2 tags.  One tag said what the event was (a person's name, a job, an action) and the other tag said who it was to, Jesus.  The Lord reveled to me that when you give someone a gift, you can’t take it back.  So once I give these presents to Jesus, to relive them is like taking my gift back.  Wow! What a thought!  So I mentally gave Jesus gifts of my “Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda” moments. 

Recently I was tempted to relive an event that I had already given to Jesus.  Immediately, I pictured the present that I wrapped up and gave to Him.  At that moment I stopped and thanked God that He had this event and I trusted Him to take care of it.  I realize that I cannot change what has happened by thinking about it constantly.  However, I can trust that God will deal with it in His own timing.
As a symbol of what I have done, I am going to wrap gifts and lay them down on the alter at church.  This will help me remember the gifts I gave and help me to know that I can't relive them because I am not going to take a gift away from Jesus.