Mistake or Lesson?

I just spent 35 minutes writing a blog that I erased in 2 seconds by mistake, I mean by lesson. Rats! 

            What lesson did I learn? Maybe that it was the wrong blog, the wrong words, I needed to dig deeper? I'm not sure. But here I am again trying to express what I just expressed seconds ago before my first client, typing 160 words a minutes. Go, Bo, Go!

            The hardest lessons in life come from mistakes. So, are they really mistakes, if what we learn makes us better people? If you spent the last year doing something you thought was your dream and ended up feeling like it was more like living in hell, is that a mistake or a realization? 

            I'm an eternal optimist. I don't like to look at life with negativity.  We get kicked and mauled by life as it is. Why do beat up ourselves? If you just lived in hell for a year, get out and find a new dream—one that will actually bring you happiness.

            I had an aunt when I was young who seemed to hate her mean husband. I mean she would cry in church every Sunday. I knew she was crying because she had made the wrong choice. But she made her choice and had to live with it the rest of her life, or until God chose to throw him from the roof of his house to his death. I have little compassion for him, because I think he used to hit her. Sorry. 

            And, to tell you the truth, I have little compassion for her, too. Why would anyone live 40 years with someone she hated? That is simply not God. 

            God does not expect you to be a martyr for the sake of religion. You are God's child, by metaphor. And what parent doesn't expect his/her kid to make mistakes? We want our children to learn from mistakes, but no good parent is mean enough to keep a child locked in prison for one small decision he or she made in youth. 

            This week, I want you to look at your life and see where you have been avoiding change, because you are afraid of admitting mistake or error in decision-making. No one will fault you for stepping up to the plate and saying, "I really don't like this choice, and I want a do-over."

            Then think hard about what it is you really want. Give it all you have. Imagine a loving God encouraging you to find happiness—true, authentic joy. Because, really that is all a good parent wants for a child. Happiness and peace!