Mistakes & Experience

A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.  John C. Maxwell

We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.  George Washington

Have you ever made a mistake?  All of us make mistakes.  It is part of who we are as fallen people living in a fallen world.  Jesus is the only man who lived on earth who was perfect.  Have you thought about the mistakes you’ve made in your life or are they long forgotten.

 

I am a firm believer in learning from my mistakes and I also learn from other people’s mistakes.  When I was young I was an observer.  I watched my siblings get in trouble and I learned what not to do.  I also learned from my own mistakes because when I did something and was punished, I learned from that experience not to do it again. 

Too many times I think we forget to look back on our mistakes as the learning tool they are and we miss the blessing God intended.  If you made mistakes in your life pull those mistakes off the shelf and examine them again.  Was there some benefit that you gained from the mistake?  Did it draw you closer to God?  Did it make you change something in your life that needed to be changed?  If you didn’t learn something from it, then you probably need to examine it again.

When you look back on the mistake, is there a pattern that continues in your life today.  We often will repeat the same mistake over and over again, just with a different person or circumstance. 

One of the best examples of this was the Israelites trip through the desert.  What should have been a short journey turned into 40 years of wandering in the desert.  Why?  Because God tested them and they failed over and over again.  The very mistakes they should have learned from they kept repeating.  They complained and even said their lives enslaved in Egypt were better than wandering in the desert.    

If we forget or don’t take the time to look for patterns in our mistakes and experiences and learn from them, we will be just like the Israelites.  We will wander the desert of this world repeating the same mistakes they did.  Our lives are going to be filled with mistakes and experiences.  Get the most out of them.

            

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I have made many mistakes in my life and I will continue to do so.  I pray that you will help me to analyze each one to see what wisdom I can reveal in my mistakes and experiences.  I can either learn from them or continue repeating them.  We don’t automatically get wisdom with age. 

Scripture: Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? 2 Corinthians 13:5

I said, ‘Age should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.’  But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding. Great men are not always wise, nor do the aged always understand justice.  Job 32:7