While we all know that we are not perfect, and can readily say so, many of us get upset with ourselves when we don’t flawlessly accomplish what we want, when we want, and the way we want. We are humans and make mistakes. I think that is probably one of the trademarks of being a part of mankind.

I think about various successful inventors that we hold up as examples of success. Whether that be NASA, the inventor of eye-sight mechanism on new cars, or the discoverers of the COVID vaccine, all of these ventures involved people who failed. But we don’t remember them for their failures but for their ultimate successes. You see, achieving and living life to the fullest includes forgetting, making careless mistakes, having our expectations and plans interrupted, and even falling flat on our faces.

The real issue isn’t do I drop the ball and make a mess of things sometimes, rather the question
Is, do I learn from the mistakes? Unfortunately, life doesn’t come neatly packaged, always going the way that I want. When things don’t go as planned or even plans get derailed because of mistakes that we make, we have to learn to pick up the pieces and keep going or even start over.

Too often people make a silly mistake, get down on themselves, perhaps even calling themselves “stupid” or a “failure.” All that is gained from doing that is making themselves feel worse and getting them no closer to their goals. We are much better served if we will only give our mistakes enough attention to learn from them and then start again.

When we are willing to own our mistakes and work to rectify them, people are forgiving of us, as is God. If they can forgive us for our imperfections, wouldn’t it be in our best interests if we did the same for ourselves?