I thought I was learning well. Or so it seemed to me.

Yes, since I signed up with Duolingo to learn Russian I was  pumped to learn.

I zoomed through the lessons mastering a few words and often by trial and error managed to move from one level to the next.

Honestly I didn’t know much-still don’t- but I managed to guess my way to success.

Then it began to get harder. I studied the spellings of words…. Have you ever tried to understand those Russian letters? But I began to get my answers wrong. Never to be discouraged I kept plugging along. Progress became slower. But I persevered. I knew I could master Russian given enough time. But it was harder than Id thought,

If you’ve ever tried Duolingo you know that you are given so many hearts. When you run out of hearts you must wait before you can try again. To be honest I used the free version. Suddenly I noticed that I was running out of hearts quickly. Same mistakes again and again. So I studied what I was doing wrong.

Perseverance- good.

Daily practice- good

Studying my mistakes- poor

I glanced at my mistakes and quickly moved forward hardly knowing what the correct answer was.  I’m not proud at all that many times I made the same mistake again and again and yes, again

But when I saw the error of my ways I slowed down and learned from my mistakes.

Soon I was making progress again in learning Russian.

But it hit me-

How many times in life had I gotten something wrong – barely glanced at my mistake- and proceeded to make the same mistake again?

The other day I made homemade biscuits. I love to bake. Since it’s just for my daughter and I,  I cut the recipe in half. But in my hurry I forgot to cut the baking powder in half so my biscuits turned out….well- interesting. 🙂

But interesting biscuits are little problems. When I repeat the same mistake in other things, the results could have larger consequences. In life we all make mistakes but we must learn from them. 

How can we learn from our mistakes-

1. Pray continually
2. Slow down
3. Meditate on God’s Word
4. Trust the Lord with all your heart and don’t lean on your own understanding

When we make mistakes, we tend to feel vulnerable and discouraged. That’s normal. Remember that making mistakes is part of life, Let’s use our mistakes as learning experiences. 

“Yes, the past can hurt, But the way I see it, you can either run from it or learn from it, “ Walt Disney.

Let God redeem every mistake.

Listen to the powerful stories from other believers who God has rescued.

Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.