Kid Mistake #297

When I was growing up and one of my sisters or I did something only a kid would think is a good idea, my dad would give it an arbitrary "Kid Mistake" number.

One that popped into my head today was when my best friend Liz and I thought it would be fun to toss all my stuffed animals up into a tree. And while it was fun tossing them up there...I distinctly remember looking up at the high branches and thinking...now what? Kid Mistake #297 came to light.

The saying that hindsight is 20/20 is so true. Not just because you saw the results of your mistake, but because as you grow older and wiser, you're better at seeing "kid mistakes" like throwing stuffed animals into a tree—before you make the mistakes. Who but a kid would even think of that idea in the first place?

But it's not just kid-to-adult wisdom that comes. I think of who I was and the kinds of choice I made 5 years ago and I am a very different person now. I feel so much better equipped to make wise choices. But I know that 5 years from now, I'll look back at my 29-year old self and say, "Oh, I was such a child. Look at the dumb things I did."

I really love this trajectory of wisdom growth, because it gives me hope when I see my own foolishness. I know that I will learn and grow wiser in that area, if I rely on God to continue to fill me with his wisdom. By the grace of God, I've got nowhere to go but up.