I've always been the girl who wanted to do everything just.right. Not sure why. My parents were not the type to pressure me or my brother or sister to be this way, I was well loved, and I never felt like I needed to prove anything to anyone else, just myself. But I've always carried perfectionism as part of my personality. So the idea of being open about mistakes I've made in life used to TERRIFY me.
It kinda makes me laugh now, because mistakes are awesome teachers. They are usually not very fun when we're going through them, but they really help us grow and learn and move forward.
I was thinking recently about some mistakes I've made in different areas of my life and how some affected me in small ways, and some affected me in really big ways that completely changed the course of my life. So, I wanted to share them here!
Whether in leading worship, leading teams, friendships, relationships, parenting, mindset, or day to day stuff, I've got plenty of mistakes in my story. Some are really funny (looking back that is, LOL), and some are not so funny but still worth revisiting for the lessons learned.
Here are 3 mistakes I've made and what they taught me:
Everybody Starts Somewhere. One of the first worship sets that I led by myself on acoustic guitar, I sang the entire set on the Alto harmony part (bahaha) AND was chewing gum! I was 16 or 17 years old, and knew nothing about choosing song keys for myself or making sure the congregation could sing along with me. Thankfully, it was in front of a very small group of people within the youth ministry I was a part of, and they were (almost) all very gracious. Whew, I was embarrassed and mad at myself. BUT, it set me on a course to really learn my own voice, what keys I could sing and play in at the same time, and eventually how to make sure I was leading the congregation and not just singing at them.
You Don't Know What You Don't Know. I thought that because I worked as a nanny for 10 years, started babysitting at 9 years old, and always loved kids, that having my own kids and becoming a parent would be easy for me. BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I could fill this entire page with bahaha's and it still wouldn't be enough. Having kiddos and parenting are not just physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually challenging, but contain lessons that keep on teaching you. There is nothing more wonderful than the love you have for your child and vice versa, and the responsibility and humbling nature of parenting I believe is character building by design. It's shaping to our own character as we are tasked with helping to shape the character of these little ones. That's some hard work.
Staying Too Long. Life is full of beginnings and endings. It can be really hard and sometimes scary to leave a place, **relationship, or job, especially if it's been great in the past. I can point to a couple of times in my life where I stayed way too long in a place that I sensed my time had been up awhile ago. It created in me fear, resentment, bitterness, and a lack of care for myself and those around me. Sometimes in those moments, I wasn't able to feel like or act like myself. I have learned that there is nothing wrong with moving on, especially if things are becoming toxic, dark, confusing, or downright dreadful. Let that door be closed, and get ready for better days ahead!
**Please note: in referencing relationships, I am not speaking about marriages. I am referencing friendships, co-workers, boyfriend/girlfriend, or even being engaged. But in my opinion, marriage is a different thing that deserves to be treated differently.**
I'll be sharing more Mistakes I've Made posts in the future, but what about you? Are you willing to share a mistake you've made in your life that helped you to grow and learn?