our mistakes

According to the Bible, man was created with free will. We were given the decision to make our own choices and live with their consequences: good and bad. Despite the stressful lives we are consumed in, wishing our lives our lives were so much easier, our mistakes make us who we are today. It is undeniable that we wish that things were easier and we knew all the answers. Unfortunately, we do not. Therefore, we have to learn from our occasional lapses to mature ourselves by growing stronger and wiser.

I will bet my life that many of us do not realize how important our mistakes are to us. Yes, we yearn to live without them, but think about this. Remember that one time that you stole from your mother’s wallet and got caught? Remember when you and your friend tried to lie your way out of trouble, and no one believed you? From these experiences, we learn to not steal and lie. We understand from our punishments, the consequences of our mistakes, that we should not commit these crimes. Although these types of mistakes will be seen throughout our lives, we will continue to learn from them and ultimately, mature.

There are many instances in stories and even history that illuminates the importance of our mistakes. The story of the prodigal son explains to us how procrastination and being absent minded can create one man into a revolutionized person. The story goes as is. There was a humble and kind man who had two sons: one younger and one older. Both of these sons had a right to half their father’s inheritance, but one son, the younger, had asked for his inheritance early. As the kind man he is, the father acquiesced to his son’s request. The younger son decided to go travel and invest his inheritance so that he may become wealthier. Unfortunately, he procrastinates and before he can realize, he spends all of his money, unable to invest any of it. As a result, he goes and begs his father for his forgiveness and asks to become a servant. His father, almost ignoring the son’s mistake, embraces him with love and care. One can just imagine the son’s reaction. Although the father did not give any physical punishment, the prodigal son’s punishment was the guilt and torture that he felt as he was starving without any money. From experiences such as this, I know that if we were his shoes, we would never be wasteful for the remainder of our lives. From examples such as this, we are shown that our mistakes teach us how to be more responsible so that we may have the easier lives that we all wish for.

Even though we can live without some of our mistakes, I would not take any of my mistakes back from the past. They made who I am and still help me grow into a new mature man. In other words, mistakes in our lives are a necessity, because they are a way for us to start over. We are reborn with every lapse, boo-boo, blunder, and fault we ever make; I am content with that.