My Favorite Mistake

         It isn’t easy to choose, there’ve been so many. There’s the time I yelled at my daughter, or crashed my car… Wait, favorite? Does that mean the most enjoyable memory? Or maybe it’s the one I learned the most from. 

         That would be the time I lost my temper at my future mother in-law for having just abused her younger daughter. I was told to leave. I turned to my soon-to-be wife and asked her to leave with me and marry me. We got married the next day; we had been secretly engaged for a year and a half anyway.

         I had been to their house a lot over the previous two years. I had seen first-hand the way her mother treated her children but hadn’t found a way to deal with it. This time I decided enough was enough and blew my top. Temper was a habit over which I eventually gained control.

         At the time I was twenty-one and wasn’t ready to settle down yet. To be mature means to make decisions and then act on them. In this case it was my decision to wed. I had been postponing that commitment and wasn’t ready to act like an adult until I was confronted with the need to do so in that moment. My outburst wasn’t the correct way to behave; however, I had finally acted on our plan to begin a life together. Fifty-four years of devotion later, with two daughters who are outstanding parents themselves has been the outcome of that decision.

         I later apologized to my mother-in-law and she forgave me. I also forgave myself. I know God has forgiven me and will obliterate all my mistakes. Father understands our imperfection; we were designed that way. He could have made us and our world perfect by a simple act, but yearned instead for strong children who would co-create themselves in partnership with him. 

         He had that much faith in us. He knew that once we had reached the age of moral decision-making as young children, we could be trusted to grow into compassionate participants in his expanding universe plan. By the end of this current age, Father will have a plethora of loving self-acting leaders who can be trusted to help him carry out his design for the next age, the nature of which we can only speculate. 

         I have so much faith in God because he has so much faith in me. He spins the straw of his children’s mistakes into gold and makes us wealthier through partnership with him. I thank him every day for believing in me, just as I believe in him.

You’re not complete until you’ve learned from a mistake.