Mistakes- Would You Change Them?

This morning at work we watched a video from Andy Stanley regarding the mistakes we have made, and creating a new standard for ourselves as we make decisions now. It was a great message that encouraged me to consider the decisions that I need to make utilizing my past, my current situations and the goals that I have for the future.

There was a part at the beginning of the message that was a little bit troubling for me. He wanted everyone to think about all of the mistakes we have made - relationship mistakes, financial mistakes, moral mistakes, etc. and how we often wish that we could go back and change them. This is something in particular that I have spent a lot of time going over in my head, and have come to a pretty clear realization concerning all of my past "mistakes".

I have been as bad as anyone in looking back on the decisions I've made. "I wish I had studied this in school. I wish I saved some of that money that I had spent on drugs. I wish I had never met so and so." But now I look at all of those things differently. I had to make those decisions to be where I am today. I used to say to my wife that it was literally every left turn and every right turn that we had ever taken that led us to eachother. God is, and was, in control of all those things, just like He is in control over all things. It's been played out in movies before-what if the guy stepped off the curb just a little sooner and got picked off by the bus, or if he didn't wait at the stop sign he may not have met the love of his life around the next corner. The thing is, that all of the things we have done were a part of His plan for us.

As soon as I give my mind the opportunity to try to "change" one of those things that I had done, I put myself in control. Not only that, but I have to also change everything about where I am now. I wouldn't have met my amazing wife. I wouldn't be the father to three incredible little boys. It's pretty clear that I also wouldn't have become a Christian. Thankfully, God let me make all of those turns, kept me alive even when I didn't really want to be, and got me to today.

I don't talk about those "mistakes", or choices anymore, unless it is to demonstrate how great He is to have used them all for my own good. To show how incredible His grace, His love and His forgiveness has been in my life. I wouldn't tell other people to do some of the things that I have done, but I wouldn't want to change any of them-for me. I needed to make each and every one of them.