Mentoring Lessons- ResilienceSample

Mistakes Are Opportunities to Learn

What do you do with your mistakes and failures?

I was a new believer at university. My sports director was spiritually motivated, and so with his encouragement, I pioneered a network of athlete believers who met regularly.

What do I remember most about this time? My many mistakes! I apologized. I continued the work and I continued to make mistakes. It was an ongoing process – failing, learning, failing, learning.

I discovered that I needed to learn important things, like how to share my faith with others one-to-one, how to lead a Bible study for athletes, how to teach believing athletes to share their faith, and how to explain the role of the Holy Spirit in our faith walk with Jesus. I learned to do all of these by making mistakes and trying again.

In another season I spent time visiting a prisoner who was guilty of a serious crime. Was this my calling? No, but it taught me about prisoners and their needs. Again, I made mistakes but learned through them.

At different times in my life, I have had to learn all sorts of new things, including how to eat food I had never seen before, how to host a formal event, how to organize a conference, how to introduce myself to people I didn’t know, and much more.

There is always so much to learn. I’m not going to be good at everything, but as I learn new things and sometimes fail, I am developing healthy ways to grow from my mistakes. What I learn also helps me mentor others.

Scripture to Ponder: Psalm 37:24

Though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.

Humbly apologize when you make a mistake. Learning from your mistakes is one of the most powerful ways to learn.