After reading, editing and printing out each devotional for the first Granola Bar Devotional, I thought everything was near perfect. We were half way done with putting all of the devotionals together, when I noticed it: A big fat error on one of the devotionals, specifically, my devotional. It was an error of information, which I had researched and wrote down incorrectly. It was blatantly wrong and staring at me in the face.
I was so upset at myself and at God. Why would God allow me to make a mistake? Why would He have me start something when He knew that I would mess it up? I’m always highly critical of published work, and I knew there would be people out there just like me who would notice every mistake. I went straight to the computer and fixed my mistake.
Then I printed out two hundred copies of the new page, dismantled all of the devotionals and started to replace the wrong page with the corrected page. I was half way done again when I noticed a formatting error on the new page that was inconsistent with the rest of the book. I became even angrier. Here I was wasting my time, replacing one mistake for another. Why had God allowed me to make another mistake?
It felt like He was doing it on purpose. Now I needed to correct the new mistake, print out two hundred more copies, dismantle all of the books again and fix everything. I wanted to scream. As I hurried down the hallway in my house, I felt God telling me to pray. “Fine,” I yelled and fell to my knees on the carpet. God immediately said, “You will make mistakes. You are not perfect, but that will not stop Me from receiving glory from your work. It will not stop my perfect will from being done.”
I realized it then. I will not be able to produce anything perfect, but that should not deter me from doing God’s will. He will cover my mistakes with His righteousness, and His perfection will be seen through my imperfections. What a relief! I can make mistakes! And I am determined that from now on, I will not be so critical of other people’s mistakes. Mistakes don’t matter if they are done in obedience. We need to see past the minor errors and focus on the perfect intentions.
Memory Verse:
“Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.”
– Psalm 119:165 (NIV)
Prayer Prompt:
“Father, help me to not cling on to frivolous mistakes. Allow me to look past human error to see Your divine will. Allow me to see through Your eyes, Father, in order to see the beauty that You’ve created in everything and everyone. Right now bring to remembrance any mistakes that I or others have made and help me to let them go, including…l”
Contributing Writer:
Alisa Hope Wagner
Faith Imagined
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