I was talking with one of my patients the other day and she started lamenting the choices she had made in her life. She had helped her husband in his business and adored that man. She had raised an excellent son but she thought that maybe she should have been a teacher.

I told her not to regret anything she had done because there was no success in regrets. You can’t go back and change anything that you did yesterday, nor 50 years ago, which was her case. I told her she was a great lady with an amazing sense of humor. She had had a successful marriage which is something very few people can claim these days and she was proud of her son.

Then today I had to take my own advice. I have been going on little sleep lately because Santa is the nastiest slave driver ever and I am being so much more perfectionistic than I need to be.

So I pulled into the parking lot of this senior living facility and I was eating a bit of my lunch that I had packed this morning. I heard a leaf blower coming my way and looked into my rear view mirror. This cute young black man was doing his best to blow leaves into my car. The very same car I had washed and cleaned just a few days ago. I mumbled a few nasty words and then got out of my car with a glare. The glare of course was directed at him. He sheepishly mouthed “I’m sorry,” a few times and I walked past him ignoring him.

In other words I acted like a real shit and I regretted it the minute I passed him. I felt bad all day but I did confess my sin to God this evening. It is very unlike me to act like I am “all that” and it doesn’t feel right when I do. I know if I ever encounter this situation again I will respond differently.

I think that is what repentance may be. In essence,it is a way to process what may have been a regret into a change in behavior. As in the case of regrets, there is also no success in sin but there is a great reward in repentance.