Mistakes are bound to happen.We do our best to avoid making them, but tell everyone else that its okay to make them, it’s okay to fail, you can mess up. But then when they do, and come to own up to them. The person they are bringing the situation to , often times, unintentionally ends up shaming them, and making them feel guilty and confused.
What will it take for us to stop reacting out of a place of pain and rejection, and start acting out of a place of honor and value?
This is something I ponder a lot. I am prone to mistakes. I have had , no lie, about 10 wrecks (vulnerable moment ) in the course of my driving experience. I say things without filtering them, and sometimes it comes off as tacky or offensive, or I just don’t do something in the way someone else approves of, and I take those mistakes on as my identity. Furthermore; I take the opinions and the words people say out of their pain cycle as a stab at my character. The book of James puts it nicely.
8 But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.9.With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.
– James 3: 8-11
Too often, friends, we let our pride get in the way of loving people, and because they may have inconvenienced us by not doing something in the way we prefer, we immediately write them off, label them as failures, and shame them for all the reasons their current ability to do something, or not do something the way we preferred caused us said inconvenience.
I would like to challenge you, and me both to look at and consider the following:
Mistakes are just what they say: Simply Mis-Takes . You have heard the phrase “I mis-took what you said for something else.” They are simply a different perspective . We all have different perspectives on things right? Furthermore; it is fair to say different perspectives have different outcomes AND – different outcomes have different consequences, both positive and negative, on our lives and situations. So , could we possibly begin to view mistakes as neither good nor bad, which in turn takes away the label , and pain cycle we place on people in those situations?
I am certainly no expert, and I fall short daily.But I am grateful for a God who has my best interest in mind, and that I do not have to work for his love and forgiveness. My hope is that this encourages you, as it does me, to view yourself in a more loving light even in your mistakes.
Be encouraged friends,
–Rachael
Accepting The Peace 