Make Lots of Mistakes

As I finished up my clean-eating lemon and blueberry oatmeal this morning, a statement from a conversation with Morgan yesterday rang in my head. I guess I was thinking about how I would rather be eating a donut but my oatmeal was good for me. My statement to Morgan was along the same lines. She was questioning a decision and I told her regardless, the outcome was for good. She looked puzzled. I explained that with every decision we really don't need to stress so much because the right decision is good for us and the wrong decision is good for us too. The difference is the wrong decision is a little more difficult to muddle through.

Now before you rush out and make careless decisions, understand that wrong decisions can have consequences that affect others and rob us of what exactly God had in mind. I believe God looks at our intentions to get it right. If I think back to many of my mistakes, whether they were years ago or last week, I believe they have made me more Kingdom focused. They have put me in places where I have been so desperate for Jesus that I had no other choice but to surrender. I sometimes find myself longing for the learnings I had in some of the yuckiest times. I hope you always cling to Jesus in your most yucky times. When you do, they end up being fond memories later on.

2 Timothy 3:16 makes me feel much better. "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness". Words like "teaching", "correction" and "training" confirm that we are going to make mistakes. So, we as we make mistakes we are to focus on training for righteousness. We are not to focus on false perfection or beating ourselves up for not getting it right. You and I can't go out and run for the first time and run a marathon. It takes effort, determination, and visualizing the goal.

Just last week as I was in the middle of mistake number two hundred, I did what every God loving, mom and wife does. I sat on the edge of my tub and cried. I told God that I didn't want to be a big girl for a while and I was too weary to pull myself up by the bootstraps. Here comes the correction......"Lisa, how many times do I have to remind you that YOU can't pull yourself up all by yourself?" I got my sweet, swift kick in the butt (in Jesus' name) and decided to get dressed in my armor again.

You and I are going to make TONS of mistakes. Take the pressure of yourself and take a big deep breath today! Mistakes are good for us. They make us better. The mistake that hurts the most is when we choose to quit." I am praying for all my readers to be warriors today and to not quit!