I was feeling pretty confident. I'd already spent a week working on the Highway Code. The standards were high but the test was supposed to be easy, if you practised enough. I did loads of practice - 2 sets of 175 questions at least 3 times, if not more. I was one of those who managed to get 175/175 for the mock test.

Within 10 minutes of the one-hour paper, I was already out of the class. Some people made it out before me. That just shows how easy it was. They repeated the questions from the practice we'd already done, just as they said they would. But I came across a trick question and decided to go with my 80% accurate gut instinct. No such luck. A mistake was made. 

Walking back to class, the uncomfortable feeling started to grow like a festering wound. My course mates started talking about that question. What a silly decision. How could I not differentiate between a hump and an uneven road warning sign. How did I fall for such a trick question? Now there was no chance of me getting perfect score. It would be a mere 49/50.

Mere?  I thought grades didn't matter to you?

The Holy Spirit has a funny way of bringing things to mind. It wasn't sarcasm for sure. Have you ever had someone ask you an insightful rhetorical question? Most rhetorical questions are supposed to be insightful, but few can achieve an effect as masterfully as the Holy Spirit. After all, I'd just written on how grades weren't important to me. I guess that's one of the benefits of penning down your thoughts. You crystallise your convictions and you talk yourself through your beliefs based on what you've already written.

Have you experienced the end of an exam before? While everyone blocks the doorway to the exit, you start hearing people flip out over the stupid mistakes that they made. Everyone is comparing answers and you start to doubt your own! Even the smart ones who left early hang around just to confirm answers with everyone. One mistake after another starts to present itself. You kinda forget that most exam systems are merit systems, not demerit systems. You start minusing the marks from the full score anyway, as if you got all the other questions right.

I've faced that kind of mistake before. 15 marks question for Business Law. And now, I have this one mistake for Highway Code (the superbly easy test). Everyone knows my GPA, they're all expecting me to get 50/50. Ouch. Now my ego's starting to hurt. It wouldn't have healed that fast if not for the Holy Spirit's intervention.

What do you do with mistakes really? Exams can be quite insignificant after awhile. I mean, you've probably made bigger mistakes in life. Real, life-changing decisions. Perhaps it was something you said to a friend, or picking up a bad habit, or putting someone through Permanent Disability/Death. When it comes to big mistakes like that, there's a period of grieving. We have to let the heart get over its emotions before we can pick ourselves up again and run.

Truth be told, there's no way I can come up with a magic formula for dealing with mistakes. But there's a pattern to how the strong people deal with their mistakes, and this pattern doesn't sidestep the grieving period; In fact, the pattern finds it very necessary.

It all has to do with how we look at our mistakes. Every mistake, unmistakably has a consequence. Sometimes we suffer that consequence, sometimes someone else suffers instead. Sometimes the consequence is huge! And sometimes it is not. You may be tempted to think that some of your repeated mistakes have no consequence. Think again. It could just be delayed judgement, if you believe in such a thing.

Those are about all the dimensions I can think of for consequences, except for the one I want to expand on. The length of the consequence. Often, we measure a consequence by how big and long the consequence is. You say something wrong to a good friend and lose her (it's troublesome typing him/her). She's never coming back. That's huge. And long. And very painful. These are the kind of consequences you have to grieve over. 

But you can't remain there forever. Grieving is good for the heart. It stops you from bottling it up or expressing it wrongly. It's actually the best way to take it to God. To grieve over it in His presence so that He walks through that hurt and pain with you. That's how I got over my mistake. It doesn't downsize my mistake in any way, but it helps me to deal with what I would like to call emotional residue.

Emotional residue is any strong emotion that lingers on in the wake of a mistake. For me, it either comes up as guilt, or as a bruised ego. Whenever someone else suffers because of my mistake, it normally comes up as guilt. I've disrespected someone or caused that person harm, it feels terrible! Whenever my reputation suffers for my mistake, as in the case of my Highway Code Test, I get a bruised ego as my emotional residue.

Asking God to take that away is simply working with the Holy Spirit, who is also called the Spirit of Truth. I find that in such cases, it often helps to ask myself "Truth Versus Lie. What's more important to me?" A cost has already been paid for the mistake. To wallow in it would be doing yourself a great disservice. Many people already know this but do not think of it when they're wallowing in their mistake - that is, we should be learning from our mistakes. Once we learn from it, we can try and avoid it in the future!

When a consequence arises, it arises. We take all the time we need to grieve. We pay our dues and ask God for help with the emotional residue. And then what? We draw the lesson from the mistake. That's what. Except, it's not that easy! Do you always draw the correct lesson from your mistakes? Is it possible to draw the wrong lesson from your mistake?

Incorrectly pronounced dead in the doctor's room, the patient got up and started to walk around. Convinced that he was already dead, he wanted to find his way to heaven. The doctors and nurses, upon recovering from their shock, tried to convince the man that he wasn't dead yet. But this 'dead' man wouldn't hear of it. Heaven was just around the corner! Desperate, one of the new interns decided to poke this dead man's flesh with a needle.

"See, you're bleeding oxygenated blood! You can't be dead!"

With a look of Eureka on the patient's face, he replied "I can't believe it! So dead men *do* bleed oxygenated blood!"

Mistakes are great teachers in life. I definitely would have spelt definitely as definately if I didn't know it was a mistake. For the mistakes with greater and more long-lasting consequences, we shouldn't stay stuck in the past. I like what Tim Hughes and Al Gordon mentioned in one of their podcasts: "Aim for perfection, but settle for excellence"

Don't leave the emotional residue there. It traps you like a bunny in a hamster cage. Guilt will weigh you down and a bruised ego will leave you wallowing in self-pity or worse, in a position where you can and will bring other people down with you. What's the point? Why not let your mistake serve as a lesson in humility? But of course, make sure you draw the right lesson. (:

I was feeling pretty confident. I'd already spent a week working on the Highway Code. The standards were high but the test was supposed to be easy, if you practised enough. I did loads of practice - 2 sets of 175 questions at least 3 times, if not more. I was one of those who managed to get 175/175 for the mock test.

Within 10 minutes of the one-hour paper, I was already out of the class. Some people made it out before me. That just shows how easy it was. They repeated the questions from the practice we'd already done, just as they said they would. But I came across a trick question and decided to go with my 80% accurate gut instinct. No such luck. A mistake was made. 

Walking back to class, the uncomfortable feeling started to grow like a festering wound. My course mates started talking about that question. What a silly decision. How could I not differentiate between a hump and an uneven road warning sign. How did I fall for such a trick question? Now there was no chance of me getting perfect score. It would be a mere 49/50.

Mere?  I thought grades didn't matter to you?

The Holy Spirit has a funny way of bringing things to mind. It wasn't sarcasm for sure. Have you ever had someone ask you an insightful rhetorical question? Most rhetorical questions are supposed to be insightful, but few can achieve an effect as masterfully as the Holy Spirit. After all, I'd just written on how grades weren't important to me. I guess that's one of the benefits of penning down your thoughts. You crystallise your convictions and you talk yourself through your beliefs based on what you've already written.

Have you experienced the end of an exam before? While everyone blocks the doorway to the exit, you start hearing people flip out over the stupid mistakes that they made. Everyone is comparing answers and you start to doubt your own! Even the smart ones who left early hang around just to confirm answers with everyone. One mistake after another starts to present itself. You kinda forget that most exam systems are merit systems, not demerit systems. You start minusing the marks from the full score anyway, as if you got all the other questions right.

I've faced that kind of mistake before. 15 marks question for Business Law. And now, I have this one mistake for Highway Code (the superbly easy test). Everyone knows my GPA, they're all expecting me to get 50/50. Ouch. Now my ego's starting to hurt. It wouldn't have healed that fast if not for the Holy Spirit's intervention.

What do you do with mistakes really? Exams can be quite insignificant after awhile. I mean, you've probably made bigger mistakes in life. Real, life-changing decisions. Perhaps it was something you said to a friend, or picking up a bad habit, or putting someone through Permanent Disability/Death. When it comes to big mistakes like that, there's a period of grieving. We have to let the heart get over its emotions before we can pick ourselves up again and run.

Truth be told, there's no way I can come up with a magic formula for dealing with mistakes. But there's a pattern to how the strong people deal with their mistakes, and this pattern doesn't sidestep the grieving period; In fact, the pattern finds it very necessary.

It all has to do with how we look at our mistakes. Every mistake, unmistakably has a consequence. Sometimes we suffer that consequence, sometimes someone else suffers instead. Sometimes the consequence is huge! And sometimes it is not. You may be tempted to think that some of your repeated mistakes have no consequence. Think again. It could just be delayed judgement, if you believe in such a thing.

Those are about all the dimensions I can think of for consequences, except for the one I want to expand on. The length of the consequence. Often, we measure a consequence by how big and long the consequence is. You say something wrong to a good friend and lose her (it's troublesome typing him/her). She's never coming back. That's huge. And long. And very painful. These are the kind of consequences you have to grieve over. 

But you can't remain there forever. Grieving is good for the heart. It stops you from bottling it up or expressing it wrongly. It's actually the best way to take it to God. To grieve over it in His presence so that He walks through that hurt and pain with you. That's how I got over my mistake. It doesn't downsize my mistake in any way, but it helps me to deal with what I would like to call emotional residue.

Emotional residue is any strong emotion that lingers on in the wake of a mistake. For me, it either comes up as guilt, or as a bruised ego. Whenever someone else suffers because of my mistake, it normally comes up as guilt. I've disrespected someone or caused that person harm, it feels terrible! Whenever my reputation suffers for my mistake, as in the case of my Highway Code Test, I get a bruised ego as my emotional residue.

Asking God to take that away is simply working with the Holy Spirit, who is also called the Spirit of Truth. I find that in such cases, it often helps to ask myself "Truth Versus Lie. What's more important to me?" A cost has already been paid for the mistake. To wallow in it would be doing yourself a great disservice. Many people already know this but do not think of it when they're wallowing in their mistake - that is, we should be learning from our mistakes. Once we learn from it, we can try and avoid it in the future!

When a consequence arises, it arises. We take all the time we need to grieve. We pay our dues and ask God for help with the emotional residue. And then what? We draw the lesson from the mistake. That's what. Except, it's not that easy! Do you always draw the correct lesson from your mistakes? Is it possible to draw the wrong lesson from your mistake?

Incorrectly pronounced dead in the doctor's room, the patient got up and started to walk around. Convinced that he was already dead, he wanted to find his way to heaven. The doctors and nurses, upon recovering from their shock, tried to convince the man that he wasn't dead yet. But this 'dead' man wouldn't hear of it. Heaven was just around the corner! Desperate, one of the new interns decided to poke this dead man's flesh with a needle.

"See, you're bleeding oxygenated blood! You can't be dead!"

With a look of Eureka on the patient's face, he replied "I can't believe it! So dead men *do* bleed oxygenated blood!"

Mistakes are great teachers in life. I definitely would have spelt definitely as definately if I didn't know it was a mistake. For the mistakes with greater and more long-lasting consequences, we shouldn't stay stuck in the past. I like what Tim Hughes and Al Gordon mentioned in one of their podcasts: "Aim for perfection, but settle for excellence"

Don't leave the emotional residue there. It traps you like a bunny in a hamster cage. Guilt will weigh you down and a bruised ego will leave you wallowing in self-pity or worse, in a position where you can and will bring other people down with you. What's the point? Why not let your mistake serve as a lesson in humility? But of course, make sure you draw the right lesson. (:

hey, this is Jerald