The Best and the Smartest

“Well, we all make mistakes, dear, so just put it behind you. We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us.” 
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

The essential and original meaning of the word, “mistake” is “to take in error.” Sometime we try and soften the harshness of our mistakes by referring to them as experiences. We say that we will “chalk that up to experience.” The essential and original meaning of the word, “experience” is “to try, to test,” and is obviously related to the word, “experiment.”

A scientist will try and prove a hypotheses through experiment, that is, getting it wrong until he/she can consistently get it right. That’s cool, and is a life lesson. The best and smartest people learn by trial and error, by mistakes.

My Grade 11 science teacher made no bones about it, he told everyone that I was his best and smartest student, “that is if, if it’s true that you learn from your mistakes.” That I remember, but the only thing about the Periodic Table, that I can tell you for sure, is that there is a Periodic Table.

There are two kinds of sins. Sin is the general state of humanity living separately from God. Jesus bridges the gap and proclaims the Good News that God is as close to us as a family member and always present with us. Sin is also those things we do (and things we don’t do) that we shouldn’t have done (or should have done). Jesus forgives us and proclaims the Good News that God forgives our mistakes and always will.

We make mistakes, we regret them and we learn from them. The purpose of forgiveness is to move into the future without carrying the burden of our mistakes. We should only carry the things we learn from our mistakes. So, accept God’s forgiveness, allow ourselves to forgive ourselves and hope for the forgiveness of others.