How to handle your mistakes!

All photos are courtesy of Unsplash 

An article was published some time back that discussed whether or not erasers should be banned from classrooms. It was suggested that they create a culture of shame about error — that they are a way of lying to the world, which says, ‘I did not make a mistake. I got it right the first time.’

Whilst one spokesman thought the banning of erasers would be a harsh action, he pointed out that, ‘the observation of children’s mistakes is essential to good teaching… teachers need to observe all the attempts children make so that they can target their instruction.’

How would we feel about all our mistakes being left permanently on display? What if, in the process of making a chair I cut one leg too short — must I leave it, or should it be removed and replaced? In these circumstances, I am sure you will agree that the matter needs to be put right.

Perhaps then we have identified the importance of both being able to see where we have gone wrong, but also of making amends where possible. God provides us with both. The apostle Paul wrote that the ‘law’ (perhaps best known by the ten commandments) was a ‘schoolmaster’, to bring people to Christ. It shows that people have fallen short of God’s standard and that they need to be made right. The message of the Bible to us is clear — that ‘all have sinned, and come short’ of God’s perfect standard. Thankfully it does not stop there, because the Bible also shows how we can be made right with God. Turning from our sin, with faith in Jesus Christ, our sins can be ‘blotted out’.

It is a simple fact that we do all make mistakes, and sometimes they can have costly consequences requiring that compensation should be paid to any injured party, and that a punishment should be administered for the wrong committed.

Having faith in Jesus Christ means believing that He paid the price for my sin through His death, and that He received the punishment that I deserved. But, because He committed no sin and God has raised Him from the dead, I have been made right in Him.  Everyone who accepts that the Lord Jesus suffered and died in their place will be made right too.

On reflection, I am sure that every one of us can think of things that we later regretted and things that we wished we had never said or done, at least in part because of the consequences that followed. What if those mistakes could be erased? As far as God is concerned, if we turn from our error with true belief in Jesus Christ as Lord, it is possible for our sins to be ‘remembered no more’ — meaning that He will never recall them again and put them against our account.

As for erasers in schools? I will leave you to make up your own mind. But when it comes to the matter of our sins before God, how much better to receive His forgiveness, knowing that they have been removed as far as the east is from the west!

Messages with Meaning (29/03/21) Written by Tom Merriman for Your 542Day