mistakes

"Don't be so hard on yourself.  I can bring good even out of your mistakes.  Your finite mind tends to look backward, longing to undo decisions you have come to regret.  This is a waste of time and energy, leading only to frustration.  Instead of floundering in the past, release your mistakes to Me.  Look to Me in trust, anticipating that My infinite creativity can weave both good choices and bad into a lovely design.

Because you are human, you will continue to make mistakes.  Thinking that you should live an error-free life is symptomatic of pride.  Your failures can be a source of blessing, humbling you and giving you empathy for other people in their weaknesses.  Best of all, failure highlights your dependence on Me.  I am able to bring beauty out of the morass of your mistakes.  Trust me, and watch to see what I will do."

Jesus Calling, May 9

How fitting that this would be the Jesus Calling devotion for today, a day that I have spent thinking and talking about all of the many mistakes I've made over the last semester and their consequences.  And there have been a lot of them.  I have done a lot of things that are very un-me.  I am incredibly stubborn and hardheaded, and there were some lessons that I needed to learn.  It has only been in the last couple of weeks that I have begun to see this past semester for what it was and just how much I had gotten away from myself.  I have done a lot of stupid things, it's true.  But for all my mistakes, I know that God is still molding my life into a piece of art that reflects His glory.  And that's all that matters in the end.