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Hi friend. Thanks so much for joining me for another episode of the encouraging word podcast.

If you've been listening to the podcast over the last few weeks, you know we're talking about finding a new way of living through better thinking.

So maybe you're ready to tackle some of those specific negative thought patterns that weigh

us down. You know, guilt is a big one. All the should haves that hound us, all the could

haves that follow us. But here's the good news. God has given us a tool to help deal with our guilt.

Guilt, the Muhammad Ali of emotions.

It comes at us with the left hook of should have and the right punch of could have.

I should have controlled my temper.

I could have helped my mother.

We try to fight back.

We duck with denial, sidestep with justification.

We blame other people. We blame other people.

We blame our upbringing, but nothing slows guilt down.

After all, do we not have many reasons to feel guilty?

Dig around in the basement of our souls, and what do you find? Wasted years, perversions, destructive

diversions, outbursts, racial slurs. We've cheated. We've cheated on exams, cheated on taxes,

cheated on spouses, even cheated at golf.

Guilt is that ugly troll who hides beneath the bridge of our conscience.

And he memorizes the ugly paragraphs of our biography.

And as we pass over the bridge, he's quick to recite them.

Hey, you remember that business trip to Kansas City when you went off the rails?

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