Have you heard the saying "Wise men learn from their mistakes."? When I was back in high school, I added my own second part to it, so it goes like this:Wise men learn from their mistakes, but a really wise man learns from other peoples mistakes.
I've found that it's another one of the great attributes of the church. By sharing, not only our good experiences, but also our bad ones, we can grow and learn from experiences without having the negative side effects of actually going through it. Granted, I realize this doesn't work 100% of the time, but I have found it helpful.
6 comments:
What is it in us that makes us want to make our own mistakes? What kind of lie have we bought into?
If we know someone went through a bad experience brought on by an action they now consider a mistake, is it just pride that tells us we can do the same action, but we'll handle it better and therefore won't have the negative consequences?
I'm not sure really. Anyone have any thoughts on why we feel the need to "make our own mistakes"?
Is it just an independence thing maybe?
hi luke...thanks for stopping by my blog. you are such an encouragement! :-)
i love your quote - especially the added addition of yours!
i think at the age of teens - 20's you think you know everything. especially if you're a college grad of some sort. even just the age of graduating high school seems to be a tricky age where you want to make your own mistakes...after all, how can they know the consequences? they were never my age is the thought that seems to dominate. what a lie, a lie that is so destructive for young adults.
i can't say much, as i'm right in the age i mentioned, but i do see it happening quite often with my friends. honestly, i probably have more of that attitude than i'd like to admit, but i try to listen to counsel and learn from others' mistakes. but that's just once young adult speaking...
thanks again for everything! i agree with my mother (radical one), you do have an awesome blog and i'll be back!
I agree that learning from other people's mistakes is wisdom in action. But I think there are some lessons we just cannot learn from others' mistakes.
Sometimes I think lessons we learn from our own mistakes are much better learned than when we learn from the mistakes of people around us. I think about some of the things I 'had' to learn the hard way, and I just can't help but think that if I had learned them any way but the 'hard way'...I'm not sure I'd be where I'm at today.
Don't misunderstand. I intend to learn as much as I can from others' mistakes, and hopefully not have to learn so much by my own mistakes. But I think it's important to 'appreciate' when we have made our own mistakes to learn from, and to think about the difference in the lessons learned.
Make sense?
Dona...I think I get what you meant...but I think it's a dangerous line of thought. When you said, "...I think it's important to 'appreciate' when we have made our own mistakes to learn from..." I would say we are never called to appreciate our mistakes, however, we can appreciate what we learned from them.
I guess what I'm trying to say is we must never flirt with the idea that making mistakes is a good thing (or even a not bad thing) just because we learn and grow from them. God has called us to be Holy and Perfect. While I realize no human besides Jesus ever has been or ever will be perfect, I think it's important to always strive for that holiness in grace. I think you may be endangering that mindset of Holiness when you start appreciating the mistake along with the lesson.
Also, how you look at what I wrote depends on how you're defining "mistakes" too. Which could change everything. :-)
You're right that it could be a dangerous line of thought.
What I meant was maybe more along the lines of what you said. I think it's important to appreciate what we learn from our mistakes...but also to appreciate how we learned them. NOT in the sense of thinking mistakes aren't bad, but in the sense of "wow, God let me learn that this way...and He still loves me and forgives me and teaches me."
I guess what I meant was more appreciation for the process.
better? still dangerous?
"What is it in us that makes us want to make our own mistakes? What kind of lie have we bought into?"
Selfishness.
Trust me on this one.
I don't know how to fully explain it, but it's selfishness.
"If we know someone went through a bad experience brought on by an action they now consider a mistake, is it just pride that tells us we can do the same action, but we'll handle it better and therefore won't have the negative consequences?"
This isn't a direct answer to your question. But, stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
Even doing "the same thing" as someone else. We must look at histories examples and learn from them.
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From Dona:
"I agree that learning from other people's mistakes is wisdom in action. But I think there are some lessons we just cannot learn from others' mistakes."
I, in no way, am saying that God causes us to sin.
But, I agree with Dona totally.
You may be able to learn from others mistake, such as "if I do this or that, this or that will happen". But, ....and I mean a BIG BUT.... You will NEVER really learn what it means to experience a specific failure by "learning from others mistakes".
And if you haven't really learned through experience, you won't/can't understand or fully help someone else who is going through the same failure.
And God then uses what He taught us, when He "helps us to our feet", when we help others.
And you will NEVER convince me otherwise.
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