Mistakes

     I don't know about you, but I don't like making mistakes. First of all, it's embarrassing, next it wastes time and often materials, and lastly, it makes me question my abilities. So in my job, where it often feels like we are  "building the plane while its in flight," mistakes can happen quickly and often. Yesterday, a change in forms, which I thought didn't apply until the new school year, left me embarrassed as I had informed some clients to use the "old" form, when in fact the "new" one needed to be filled out. The frustration over having to fix this problem by apologizing to the organizations I misinformed and then send out new information deflated me. 
     Joanie Yoder in her book, God Alone, reminded her readers on page 195, "Bring God your failures and receive His forgiveness now as freely as when you first believed. Your great Potter still loves you and longs to remake you...God's work in us isn't over when we receive Christ-it has just begun." That message was helpful to me to remember God is the Potter and He forms me just the way He wants me to be. If these situations are needed for Him to make me into the masterpiece He has planned for me to be, I need to be humble, be flexible, and be merciful toward myself and others as I go through the process of reform.

Jeremiah 18:⁶ He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. ⁷ If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, ⁸ and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. ⁹ And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, ¹⁰ and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.