When You Make a Mistake…

“When you make a mistake,” said Hugh White, “take the reason of the thing into your mind, and then look forward. Mistakes are lessons of wisdom. The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power.” ¹ Mistakes are lessons to be learned _ and if the lessons are learned, then mistakes may not be an absolute loss.

Life is for learning, and the principle of repentance was given us because we need it. Repentance is a great principle of progress, a principle that could lead us to the ultimate ideal. The Creator doesn’t deal in theories. Whatever He asks of us is possible and practical. He has not given us any commandment we cannot keep. But He expects us to learn our lessons, and not go on making the same foolish mistakes over and over again. To do so would be an irrational waste. He expects us to learn from our own experience. He also expects us to learn from the experience of others, and not personally try to make all the mistakes there are.

We should learn from history. We should learn from other people who have made mistakes and paid a price. We should learn from parents. We should learn from teachers. We should learn from all the trial and error, all the heartbreak, failure and frustrations that others have had.

We should personally make as few mistakes as possible, and not foolishly repeat the errors of others, or stupidly repeat our own. The only way to prove we have learned life’s lessons is not to repeat the mistakes of the past, not to keep doing the same foolish, shortsighted things over and over again _ which simply isn’t very smart or rational or intelligent, and never leads to peace or progress.

When you make a mistake _ if you make a mistake _ make sure that it’s a lesson learned, and don’t repeat foolish, stupid mistakes!