Brooing over anything means living or acting in self-pity. To avoid brooding over past mistakes or continuing to blame self for wrong acts of the past , try to avoid taking rash decisions , “look before you leap” or be quick to hear but slow to react so as to prevent doing what one would regret later on. The life of Cain and Abel epitomized the harmful effect of brooding over a bad situation in which there was no thought given to reconciling with God. God has always been gracious with man.  The two brothers individually made sacrifice to God. Cain’s offering was not honored by God whereas Abel’s own was well received by God.  Since Cain’s offering was rejected because of the unworthy items he offered, he became obsessed with anger and envy for Abel. He seized the opportunity of being with each other alone on the field to kill Abel. So Cain became the first recorded felon or a murderer in the history of mankind. If Cain had not resorted to unholy anger, he would have chosen the path of reconciliation, believably, he would have gotten a reprieve rather than eternal damnation. Genesis 4: 3-11.

An unholy anger can always be the cause of brooding in view of action taken to wrong another person or other persons. Whereas, if the person had approached the matter with deep-rooted positive thinking one would not have arrived at self-pity. A situation that can lead to self-pity is like when a center-forward player in a soccer final match where gold cup is at stake allowed the spur of the moment to abandon  his sure goal in the offing to be derailed by a foul in a goal-mouth struggle. He abandoned the code of conduct and reacted his own way thereby losing the winning goal just as the final whistle ended the match. There is no way the wasted goal will not continue to haunt the psyche of the person who deprived his team from winning a glorious battle.

King Saul was full of self-pity over his usurpation of Prophet Samuel ‘s divine prophetic role without sense of remorse. Perhaps , if he was remorseful he would not have lost the promise of zoning the kingship dynasty to his lineage forever. It is believed that Saul knew how the compassion of God had been so great over the children of Israel, Isaac and Abraham, for God’s compassion on Saul was great to the extent of choosing him from a small tribe in Israel? He knows HIS children’s frailty more than they can ever know Him. It was a known fact that the whole of Israel had always been sinning but once they perform sin offering they had always gotten the  needed forgiveness. Even, when they sinned in the wilderness, Moses interceded for them and God did not wipe them out as He wanted to do. God as Yahweh to the children of Father Abraham has all the time been ready to forgive anyone born of a woman.

In political arena blunder committed can occasion brooding over failed strategy. In another vein, one that loses in a demodratic free and fair election can choose to brood over the failure. On the contrary, the loser is enjoined to go back to the drawing board to scan and research the cause of the failure. A war-general who always takes stock of successes and failures that were his lot stands the  chance of staying above adversaries because of his positive outlook to life. If Peter were to continue brooding over his breach of trust, remember, he told Jesus he would not deny Him even when Jesus  said Peter would deny Him thrice before the cok crowed Matthew 26: 34 “Jesussaid unto him, Verily I say unto thee,That this night, before the cock crow,thou shall deny me thrice”. It did happen and he went out of the Chief Priest vicinity and wept bitterly and was later restored. John 21: 15-17 says : “So when they had dined , Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith  unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him,  Feed my sheep”. (KJV)

Only God is sinless and had given us his only begotten Son to be the sacrificial lamb for our forgiveness even unto eternity. We do not need to continue carrying our woes and sorrows without letting it go. Hand all challenges to Christ Jesus and He will see us through.