You Must Be Mistaken

“The greatest mistake a (wo)man can ever make is to be afraid of making one.” - Elbert Hubbard

I don’t know about you but I hate making mistakes. I work really hard to not make one. I watch what I say or do and even what I think about. Why? Because it starts in your brain before it becomes who you are and then it’s out of your mouth. So I will ask a million questions before I do something. I value the opinions of my elders because they have wisdom in their years. I study hard and am very cautious and careful. I’m trying to learn before the mistake and not after. If that mistake does happen it hurts. It hurts a lot! I have utterly and completely failed. I deserve the punishment. I messed up. Clearly I’m not good enough. Mistakes are for bad people. I mean no one should make a mistake right? Wrong. All of this is wrong. 

God decided to show me my lesson through my own child. She had made a mistake. She slipped up and was now in trouble. However she has her mama’s trait. She was harder on herself than I ever could be. She first fought the fact that she made a mistake. Then she started to beat herself up. How could she be so dumb? How could she not see it coming? How was she here? This mama stopped her immediately. I told her she needed to stop being so hard on herself. Mistakes are how you learn and grow. We need mistakes in order to move up. No one is ever perfect. No one will ever not make a mistake in their lives. It was strange that I was comforting her even though she still had to face the consequences. However, at that moment God asked if I was listening to myself. Pshht. It’s different, I thought. How is it different? I’m an adult. I should know better by now. Should you? I was already making a mistake in this conversation. I was telling God He was wrong. 

Mistakes happen until we die. We don’t get to a stage or moment in life where we receive the degree of perfection.

Fighting against mistakes will only leave you exhausted. Doing our best is great. But we need to loosen up on the no mistake policy. We need to embrace that it’s not the end of the world. Retraining my brain to accept this would be an amazing thing for me mentally and emotionally. Imagine someone giving a two year old a marker to only color within the lines. That’s the same as telling anyone to live a life with no mistakes. Not going to happen. We need to give both the same freedom. 

Failing forward is such an amazing phrase. That positive spin takes away the bad taste ‘mistake’ leaves in your mouth. Honestly, we should start going around saying “Ugh! I just failed forward!”. Even the ugh doesn’t fit. Because that beautiful positive connotation makes it a good thing. Which it is. At the moment it sucks and feels like it’s over. But flip it upside down and celebrate the fact that you now know what not to do. 

Some mistakes lead you to beautiful destinies. Some push you to a better level. Some show you where to never go again, giving you a better personal compass. Some teach you something you can share with others. God will always take our mistakes and turn it for our good for those whose purposes are in him. That alone should give us comfort.