faithMile

by Katryna Starks

“Take Chances!
Get Messy!
Make Mistakes!”
— Teacher, The Magic School Bus

Mistakes. If you’re anything like me, you hate them. Not other peoples — your own. Making a mistake can make us feel anything from slightly embarrassed to completely stupid — and, in the worst cases, unworthy of God’s love. But, what are mistakes, really? Well, they’re opportunities to learn!

The Same Mistakes

Do you find yourself making the same mistake over and over again? That can be a frustrating experience. But take heart – it’s also a learning experience. Here’s what we can learn from making the same mistakes:

There is a habit, a problem area or a “blind spot” in your life. Think about the last time you made that same mistake. Ask yourself “what lead up to it?” Think about the circumstances around your mistake. Where were you? Who were you with? How did you feel?
Now, think about the time before that one, and each time before that. Were you in similar circumstances? Do you see a pattern? Pray about your mistake. Does God show you a pattern? Stop the pattern and you stop the mistake.

You need to learn a lesson and you keep changing your outward circumstances without learning it. I remember a time in the not-too-distant past when I had a problem with authority. Particularly, the authority at my job. I didn’t have a boss that I liked and I didn’t want to submit to someone who, in my opinion, was wrong (no, I’m not married). In order to not have to submit to my boss, I would find another job. But guess what? My new boss would turn out to have all of the same qualities I didn’t like about my old ones. I finally realized that God was teaching me to submit to authority. Once I humbled myself (and believe me, it was a humbling experience), I ended up in a great job — with a great boss.

You need to work on your relationship with God and it’s manifesting in your life. Do you keep finding that your mistakes involve a lack of trust? Do you need to trust God more? Do your mistakes involve a lack of obedience? Do you obey God? Sometimes God will use situations in our lives as mirrors for our relationship with Him. Strengthen your relationship with God and the vicious cycle will end.

Different Mistakes

As frustrating as it can be to make the same mistakes over and over again, it can be equally jarring to find that you’ve solved one dilemma — only to find yourself in another. Here is what we can learn from our new mistakes:

You’ve dealt with the old issues and you now have new challenges to face. As humans, we all have several issues to deal with and bad habits that need to be corrected. And God fully intends to help us correct every one of them — but not at the same time. If you have conquered a bad habit, but find your attention drawn to another bad habit, then you’ve done well with the first and now your assignment is to work on the second. Best wishes to you. Keep the faith!

You’re still not learning the first lesson, so God has to give it to you another way. Examine the principles behind the mistakes. What is the nature of the solution? Does the new mistake seem to be a lot like the old one? God could be trying to teach you an old thing in a new way.

You’re growing. New mistakes could be the result of launching into uncharted territory. We want God to take us to new heights, but we often don’t want to do the work (or make the mistakes) in order to get there. We rarely learn a new thing by doing it correctly the first time — and being a Christian doesn’t erase the natural learning process. Mistakes are necessary in order to grow. Keep at it. At the end of the process, you will have reached new heights and learned a little perseverance along the way.

No matter what kind of mistakes we make, if we take the time to look deeper and pray, there are lessons to be learned from all of them. One of the most importance lessons we learn from all of our mistakes is the lesson of forgiveness. For more on forgiveness, read the companion article … But We Get Up.