DON’T LET THE PAST TRAP YOU! By Ananwureyi Joy Ohine

‘Don’t allow the past to trap you or you’ll end up like me’.

‘Why? The past can trap me? Then, I can just open the door and get out’

‘No! You can’t. You might not be able to see the door. When the past succeeds in trapping you, you might not be able to come out. Don’t end up like me…’

Conversation between Sang Tae and Mr. Kan in ‘It’s okay not to be okay’ Kdrama series (Episode 12)

Yes! A lot has happened in the past; a lot of hurtful and sad stuff. Experiences that were most times no fault of ours, situations that we couldn’t have had control over…They have happened, hurt us, still hurting us, and have perhaps even shaped who were are today.

Letting go of the past can be so hard to do, I know. But if we don’t let go, how are we going to move forward?

Whether it is even some experiences that have made you so scared: if we don’t face our fears, how do we overcome? We need to break the chains that are holding us back.

We cannot leave the trap of the past if we don’t know we are in it. We need to stop walking around with our failures, mistakes, disappointments and past hurts that have restrained our ankles, weighing us down.

Now that I think about it, Lot’s wife (in the Old Testament of the Bible) looked back and became trapped in the past, despite all the warnings. God cannot operate in the lives of many people today because they keep holding on to their pasts. Many can’t love today because they are holding on to past hurts. Don’t be stuck in the past that you’re unable to move on from there.

Learn from the past if need be, apply it to the present, so that you can live the life you were meant to live. Don’t let your past define, destroy or defeat you. Let it strengthen you.

You are worthy of a future. Don’t let the past drag you down. You cant change what has happened, except of course you have a time machine to take us all backwards. So why keep hanging unto it and allow it to eat your life away?

What is it you would let go of today?
Never let the past spoil your present
Never let the past govern your future

Release the past, stand firmly in the present, while preparing to step confidently into the future.