Mistakes happen. As a writer, I’m getting kind of used to mistakes. I can proof something ten times and still miss a comma or a misspelling. That’s why an extra set of eyes is helpful. (Thank you Debbie!)
Of course, errors in content are a much bigger deal.
My fear of those kinds of errors kept me from writing for a very long time. I didn’t want to lead anyone astray or give the “wrong” idea about something, and so I just wouldn’t say anything.
However, that’s really no way to live. Only writing things I was absolutely certain would be one hundred percent correct…well, that was never going to happen.
So…I write a blog, and I make mistakes…hence the “messed up and broken” part.
I recently made a pretty big factual error on my blog.
The Oscar’s aren’t tonight.
I was partially surprised by that. I have the right date written on my calendar, but for some reason, I’ve been confusing this weekend with next weekend A LOT. I won’t bore you with the details of the many ways I’ve gone to do something this week that’s on the calendar for next week, but I did want to make the correction. (THE OSCARS ARE FEBRUARY 24!) And I’m going to completely miss them due to my inability to differentiate between the last two weekends of February.
Anyway, I actually fretted about “messed up and broken” being the main title of my blog. It kind of focuses on the negatives. Sure we all make mistakes, and all of us are a bit messed up, and some are even a little broken, but do we really need to be reminded about that?
This past week I had one of those “aha” moments. It hit me right after an argument. It seems I’ve spent a lot of time trying to prove I’m right or that I’m not the raving lunatic I sometimes think I am, instead of trying to learn what I should do differently or even trying to understand something.
We can hate our mistakes, and dislike being messed up. We can be uncomfortable confronting those parts of ourselves. We can even mourn our imperfections, but one thing we cannot afford to do is ignore it all. These things don’t just fix themselves, and throwing our hands up in the air or moping around isn’t going to help either. Being scared of them is a waste of time too.
So what do we do?
We can try to learn, put one foot in front of the other, and recognize that God can use ALL of these things, our mistakes included, to grow us up and make us stronger, and take us forward. It’s not so scary when you put God next to it. There’s hope. I’m pretty sure most of that stuff we can’t fix all on our own anyway. We’re his little problem to fix. That’s where the “loved and forgiven” part comes in, and that makes all the difference.
You are loved and forgiven. He will not let you go. So learn what you can, change what you’re able, and trust him with all of it.
“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;
my hope comes from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress,
I will not be shaken.”
Psalm 62:5-6
