Lesson I Learned in Life

There are some things that I have learned throughout my travels in life. For instance, giving yourself food poisoning is never fun and falling down a muddy hill on the way to a post-race interview is always embarrassing.

Life is never without its dull moments. I am more appreciative of the fact that life is about growth than ever before. Growth in our relationship with God and growth in learning from the past in order to move forward.

I’ve made my fair share of mistakes along the way (some hilarious in nature and some much less so). Mistakes, if taken in the right frame of reference, are truly opportunities for deeper growth and a better appreciation of all that life offers.

Now, obviously, no one likes to make mistakes or fail. Failure comes with an enormous amount of pain and hurt. However, mistakes and failures provide moments of reflection and a chance to reevaluate things that, perhaps, we were unwilling to examine.

The last few months have offered me a chance to examine some things about my life after some difficult moments (mistakes if you will). Perspective allows for clarity of examination and the opportunity to think deeply about certain moments. The lessons I’ve learned over these last few months have made me a better person, husband, father, friend, and pastor. Much of what I’ve learned is private and not appropriate to share across a forum such as this.

My encouragement to everyone, though, would be to not run from your mistakes or failures. It is too easy to do so in this day and time. Running from our mistakes only makes the situation worse. We have to embrace our mistakes, learn from our failures, and grow as a result of the lessons we have learned from them.

The best opportunities for growth, I believe, come out of our mistakes and failures. We do not seek them out, but when they occur we see them for what they are as opportunities to learn and move forward. No one is going to go through this life without making mistakes, but we can become better people by learning from our past, adapting in the present, and growing into our future.