Learning from Our Mistakes

"For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief" (Proverbs 24:16).

We all make mistakes.  We are all human, and erring is part of the human condition.  Only Jesus Christ lived a perfect life.

Therefore, when we do something we regret, we shouldn't be surprised or discouraged.  We should pick ourselves up and learn from the mistake. Sometimes mistakes, when confronted in a positive way, can lead to great success.

For example, the story is told of an ice cream vendor who ran out of cups in which to put the ice cream.  Obviously his sales stopped abruptly.  Then he saw a vendor nearby who was selling waffles.  He bought waffles from him and formed a cones from them and resumed selling ice cream.  In fact his sales actually increased!  When we have the right attitude, a problem can become a gold mine.

Of course, we should never intentionally sin.  However, even with our best efforts to obey God's laws, we will fall pray to sin.  As the scriptures tell us, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23), and, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8).   The key is to quickly recognize our sin, repent of it, learn the necessary lessons, so that we don't do it again.

Our efforts to repent and refrain from the sin shouldn't cease if we don't at first succeed.  As stated in the first scripture quoted above, we should rise up again and seek God's help and blessing in overcoming our weaknesses.  He wants us to succeed and will give His help in overcoming every weakness in our lives.