Growing up and even to this day I have always been a rule follower. I’ve never felt the need to learn on my own, make intentional mistakes, or rebel. I’ve never felt the need to test the limits. If my parents told me something wasn’t safe, I listened. I didn’t need first hand experience to believe every precaution or warning those in authority gave me. As a matter of fact, it would frustrate me when I would see friends or family members make mistakes or learn lessons the hard way. I always wondered why couldn’t they just listen to advice and knowledge given? It is so simple! Personally, I never understood the value in learning from life’s experience.
A few weeks ago however, I made a mistake that I was not proud of. I won’t go into detail but it definitely wasn’t my greatest moment. I remember feeling the weight of my actions so heavily. Everyone around me was supportive and tried to assure me it was okay, but it didn’t feel okay to me. I didn’t feel condemnation but I did feel God’s conviction. In this particular area of my life/growing up, I had always been told to stay away so naturally, when I didn’t have someone telling me what to do I made my own rules and never set boundaries. Unfortunately, It landed me where I was. Even though I was precautioned in the past, It was clear I hadn’t taken it seriously until I had learned experience . The weight of my mistake led me to set boundaries and realize what I no longer want to put up with anymore. Never again did I want to end up in that position.
A few days later, I was able to reflect and that is when I realized, in some cases, there is beauty in learning the hard way. Please hear me, I’m not saying that all experiences or advice given shouldn’t be listened to or you MUST learn lessons the hard way but what I am saying is that when mistakes or unfortunate circumstances arise where you do, you can find the beauty in it.
So my encouragement is this, when you make a mistake, try changing your perspective. Yes it hurt, yes it sucks, yes you wish it didn’t have to come to this. However, you can look at it as an opportunity to do better in the future. Because you have that experience from your mistake, you feel the weight of why you never want to go down that road again. It is more than just someone telling you. Now, you have learned experience and wisdom moving forward. You too can find beauty in what feels like the hard way.
Jannetta Cox 