Let your mistakes burn…
Terry Dashner…….Faith Fellowship Church PO Box 1586 Broken
Arrow, OK 74013
Thomas A. Edison’s son, Charles, describes the night in which
his father’s entire laboratory at Menlo Park burned. The famous
inventor was then sixty-seven, and the winter wind blew his
sparse white hair as he stood watching years of work go up in
flames.
“My heart ached for him.” Charles said. “He was no longer a
young man. But then he spotted me and shouted, ‘Charles, go find
your mother. Bring her here. She’ll never see anything like this
as long as she lives!’”
And the next morning Thomas A. Edison observed, “There is great
value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we
can start anew.”
Admittedly, I’m not the optimist that Mr. Edison was; however, I
believe there is wisdom in letting mistakes die. Learn from
them, yes; but, let go of them and move on. I believe there are
several things to glean from letting go of your past mistakes.
For one, to err is human. It’s okay to make mistakes. Learning
from them, instead of condemning yourself, makes you better at
what you do and a better person. The first public rendition of
George Frederick Handel’s The Messiah was in Dublin, Ireland, on
April 13, 1742. When Lord Kinnoul complimented the entertainment
he had given the town, Handel said, “I should be sorry if I only
entertained. I wish to make them better.” What God has given you
to do in life will not only make others better, but you will be
made a better person for having done it, even at the risk of
making mistakes.
Secondly, making mistakes means that you are trying—you are
doing something. When I was in field training as a police
officer many years ago, I was given a great piece of wisdom by a
training officer. He said, “Don’t worry about complaints. If you
do your job, you’ll draw complaints. If someone complains about
you, it means that you are out there doing your job. The
citizens of Tulsa deserve that.”
Through the years that has stayed with me. Yes, I could do
nothing in life for fear that I might make too many mistakes.
But, what good is that? I don’t want to live my life from an arm
chair. I want to do something to change the world for good.
Therefore, offenses will come. And so will mistakes.
What about you? Are you moving forward in life, even while
making mistakes? Or, are you stagnate because you’re fearful of
making mistakes and what people might say against you? May I
encourage you to let your past mistakes die? May I encourage you
to keep moving forward in the Lord? By His power He can take you
beyond your mis-takes.
Keep the faith. Stay the course. Jesus is coming soon………..Pastor
T.
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