Seeing the Wrongs and Making Them Right

She was a coal miner’s daughter, married young and began her singing career by crooning her babies to sleep. She found joy and hope in sharing her songs, so her husband began beating down doors to get her on the radio. It worked. Loretta Lynn is one of the best, most loved Country singers to date. She wrote this song more than sixty years ago and the sentiment still holds true for us all.

Loretta writes about making mistakes, losing love, and feeling worthless. “I can’t make it right with all my wrongs.” A sentiment we can all relate to as no one is perfect. We all make poor choices, half start, procrastinate, and suffer through our own errors. It can feel like nothing will ever be right again when you see all the negative things added up in one column.

The good news is that there is always hope. Nothing lasts forever, and people forgive us as they too will eventually need forgiveness. The truly hard part is forgiving ourselves AND forgetting our mistakes. Yes we need to learn the lessons and incorporate those changes into our lives moving forward. Then we need to let it go and move on without all that baggage. I spoke to someone today who was telling me the story of how their father handled anger. Their dad was explosive, volatile, and no one knew what would set him off. That is where they learned how to process their own anger. As an adult they are just now learning how to express that emotion in a more productive and healthy manner, keeping their self respect and relationships in tact. The hard part for them is letting go of those childhood experiences to shape a new paradigm for their life moving forward.

Facing our mistakes is hard, letting them go is even more work. Giving ourselves the gift of forgiveness takes time, energy and concentrated effort. We all deserve love, peace, and good things in life. That means we have to be willing to accept, believe and behave in such a way that our thoughts and actions support the right side of things instead of always expecting the wrong. I can hear Loretta Lynn’s voice cheering us on towards a happy life as she crooned those babies to sleep. It takes courage to change our lives, to dare to believe that we deserve good and to make good choices to make those good things possible. Loretta would attest to that, and if she can do it we can too!