Mistakes

Mistakes. We all make them. Sometimes we try to hide or minimize our mistakes— they run the gamut. Mild, like spilled coffee—uuhhh—well that’s not so mild. All the way to deadly—as in looking at your cell phone while driving.

However, there can be an up side to mistakes; we can learn from mistakes. I suppose that is really the basic way we learn; try and try again to master a skill, practice a musical piece, or cook a meal. Fresh out of my first Army National Guard encampment as a cook, I volunteered to cook a meal for my grandparents. It was a train wreck of untold proportions. The recipe for a Company C meal missed dramatically as a family meal. They politely choked it down anyway—after all, I was their oldest grandson—-they tried to feel proud.

Psychologists Shelley Carson and Ellen Langer (2006) say there are “good mistakes” and “bad mistakes.” What makes the difference is how we respond to them. Good mistakes teach us valuable lessons. Bad mistakes are the ones we hide from in shame and regret. (from Psychology Today).

Our lives today are made much healthier, easier, productive, and fun due to a hat-full of good mistakes made over the years. X-Ray. Penecillin, Microwave Ovens, Matches, Super Glue, Post-it Notes, to name a few, These, and many wonders came as a result of a mistaken move, or accidentally creating something other than the intended outcome. One example; a scientist working to produce a specific adhesive, found one that didn’t meet the standard. It would stick but not hold fast, yet left no mark when removed. He took “from the cutting-room-floor” some pieces with him to choir practice . He used them to mark pages in his hymnal for the next church service. Other choir membres wanted to use some also; Post-it Notes—the rest is history.

Where would we be without mistakes? Even some bad mistakes— We learned to talk, walk, ride a bicycles, read, and make airplanes, through corridors corrageous mistakes. I remember teaching my little sister to ride a bicycle. Although she never broke a bone, actually I don’t remember any blood, but I remember multitudes of falls on the sandy dirt road by our house. But she learned. It became her favorite outside activity, ridng throughout the community.

We human beings are not perfect—in our efforts nor our intentions. We often get unintended consequences. Not all are bad. The good news is that God, who wants the best for us offers forgiveness and opens a better way for us. Jesus told a story of a young man whose life was the epitome of mistakes. Upon seeing his mistakes, he returned home to a forgiving father.

Copyright © Willis H. Moore 2025