The other day a friend was praying for me and got this word from the Lord:
You have so many shoulds in your life. They are robbing you of your freedom. The Lord doesn’t do shoulds.
That word was very accurate and well-timed (as you might expect when the Lord speaks). I have so many shoulds in my life – I should have done this, I shouldn’t have done that. Dwelling on those has become a hobby, an obsession on the past that robs my focus and energy for the present, the moment, the now that is all I have and all I am responsible for.
This is something I already know mentally, but need to learn to put into practice. Dorothy Day first taught me the importance of doing what comes to hand, to “be responsible only for the one action of the present moment.” (Loaves and Fishes, p.176) With all moments before now, I have either done wrong and need to repent, or I have done well and need to remain humble about that. But all of those moments are gone, only now matters.
There is no should, then, there is only what was. I may need to receive (or give) forgiveness, but dwelling on where I think I went wrong avails me nothing. In fact, it does the opposite. It takes away my ability to enjoy my freedom now. It becomes one more way to procrastinate and avoid the freedom that I am secretly (well until right now) afraid of. I don’t have to fear my future or my freedom.
Neither do you. The Lord shared this word with my friend specifically for me, but I think it might also be good for some of you to hear as well. I like that our God does not do should.
Mike Raburn 
We have one great big “are” in our lives–we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (II Corinthians 5:21). All of our shoulds were crucified on the cross with Christ. You see, he got to the real root of our problem as human beings when he asked His Father to forgive us because we didn’t understand what we were doing. And, then he made the way for us to gain all the knowledge, understanding, and wisdom (from God) we need to go way beyond the shoulds. The shoulds have no power in our lives–God’s absolute love does!
Great post! I think it’s also about learning from our “shoulds” and moving on. We all have shoulds (even though we shouldnt) and if we learn and grow from them, then they haven’t been a complete failure.
We are free in Christ and it seems for us feeble humans that’s a diffcult concept for us to live out most of the time, but that God we are free!