Mistakes

I was in church the other day and heard our verse for today being read. I had one of those light bulb moments when something really hit home. It was the part where James (the writer of the verse) says, “We all make many mistakes”.

Have you ever thought of that? That the human writers of the Bible made mistakes in their lives? Not just the occasional mistake, but many mistakes.

I don’t mean they made mistakes in writing the Scriptures, obviously, because they were being carefully guided by the Holy Spirit in that. But what James is talking about is his normal life - when he wasn’t writing something inspired directly by God. In his normal life he says he made many mistakes, especially in things he said, and it’s true that we all do.

So if you are a bit like me, and prone to berate yourself for your mistakes, perhaps it would help to remember that even James, who wrote a book of the Bible, made many mistakes in things he said to people. God didn’t write him off and He won’t write you off.

The verse goes on to say if we never said the wrong thing, never offended anyone, and never tripped up, we would actually be perfect. Lovely though that would be, neither you nor I are perfect, nor likely to become perfect any time soon.

And the same applies to that other person - the person who offended you or hurt your feelings by something they said. Can you allow that person to make mistakes too? Why not let it go and forgive them?