Lean Manufacturing Blog

So you have made some mistakes in the past.   Congratulations.   Everyone does. John Maxwell wrote a book called, Failing Forward.   I’ve always been told that if I fall I should try to fall forward.   In highschool band we were taught, “If you’re going to make a mistake – make a big one!”  I’ve tried to use those type sayings in my life.
Mistakes will be made.   You will fail from time to time.   People will be disappointed in you.   You will have regrets.   The one thing you need to do is forgive yourself and move on.   When I was a young piano student [I took for about 10 years] my teacher, Mrs. Ford, would say, “Charles, if you play a bad note don’t stop.   Keep going to the next note. “  But do you know what?  I would many times go back and repeat the same note, or measure or section until I got it right, but I would usually go back to the beginning to do it. It’s one thing to practice a portion of music to get the skill and the fingering just right, but it’s another thing to punish yourself by going back to the beginning of the piece every time you made a mistake.   Move on!
Here is a situation that Jesus found himself in.   The religious people brought him a woman who was caught in the very act of doing wrong – committing adultery.   Here is the portion from John 8:3-11 KJV.
And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
The one thing I see in this story is Jesus’ willingness to forgive this woman who obviously did wrong.   When I make a mistake I don’t want to be condemned. I want to be forgiven.   Jesus told her, “Neither do I condemn thee. “  Then he said something very important, he said, “Go, and sin no more. “  I believe He was telling this woman, “I have forgiven you, now go and forgive yourself and move on.   Don’t live in the past regrets, past failures, past sins — move on in love and forgiveness — and, oh, don’t do it anymore. “
Let us all do likewise – forgive yourself and move on.

Written by Mike Baker

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