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If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 1 John 1:9

Renee gestured toward the pastor’s drawing of the three types of guilt.

“Tell me about the other two kinds of guilt,” she said.

The pastor tapped the paper. “After true guilt, the other two types, false and misplaced, are mean. When we are dealing with false guilt, we are convinced everything bad is our fault, and we use the words I should have a lot when we talk about the situation. We may even blame ourselves for a friend’s accident because he or she stayed to watch a long video with us. But we didn’t cause the wreck; the drunk driver who ran a stop sign did.”

Renee stared at the false-guilt circle, trying to fit the pastor’s words into the load of guilt she had carried over her mother’s decision to leave college those many years before.

The pastor gestured toward the paper again. “The third circle represents misplaced guilt. Here, something happens that normally would be insignificant, but this time it causes a deep problem. It can be something as simple as thinking it’s your fault a friend didn’t do well in a game because you, the designated laundry doer, threw her ‘lucky socks’ in the wash.”

“So where do I start?” Renee asked.

The pastor smiled. “You already have. In fact, I’m convinced you are closer to your goal than you think.” —SANDRA

Lord, I didn’t know guilt came in so many forms. Help me to sort the true guilt from the false or misplaced guilt. Help me to ask forgiveness where I need to and to stop beating myself up over the rest. You offer peace and hope and forgiveness. Help me to accept those good gifts from your hand.

Hope is an adventure, a going forward, a confident search for a rewarding life.

—KARL MENNINGER (1893–1990), AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIST