First Baptist Church of Herndon

The Blessing of Mistakes

Linda Soller | Oct 26, 2020

During the early months of our pandemic I threw myself into my knitting. It’s my pastime of choice and usually very soothing. Unfortunately, my anxieties, my posture, and the intensity of my efforts left me in pain and stressed. I had always worked to avoid knitting mistakes as though my life depended on it. Then I read a book about the ergonomics of knitting which said one of the first things a knitter should learn is how to fix mistakes. The theory is you will work in a relaxed manner if you are confident you can fix your mistakes. It worked! Over last weekend I picked up one of my current projects and noticed a “funny place”. That is knitting language for a messed-up stitch. Calmly I started pulling out hours of work. As I discarded stitches to reach the row with my mistake, I was confident it would all be for the best. I saw fixing the mistake as just another part of the process, and the blessing of the mistake was that my confidence was reinforced. My other options would have been to finish the sweater with the obvious mistake and probably never wear it, or not finish it at all. Either way the mistake would have hung over me. 

Not every mistake is easily fixed, but every mistake provides a lesson. Some of us take longer to learn our lessons than others, eventually most of us come around. Some mistakes like putting caramel sauce on your ice cream instead of chocolate seem hardly worth fixing. Some mistakes may save our lives, like a near car accident when looking at our phone instead of the road. It’s possible your life is safer for that mistake and the lesson you learned from it.

I have been thinking a lot in recent months about what we are learning as we go through this pandemic. I can’t remember any time in my life where I have been forced to reconsider what is important and to learn from my mistakes. The mistakes of life can truly be blessings if you are paying attention to the lessons they bring.

Be the good in the world! :o) Linda