As I write these articles, I’m reminded of the mistakes I’ve made as a parent. I’ve punished the wrong child & heard my children laughing at how they tricked me – of course the one punished is now a hero as well as the one who got away with the wrong.

I also remember the sad & sometimes lasting consequences to my children resulting from my mistakes. My oldest daughter suffered all through school because, in my pride, I put into school too early. When confronted with my error by concerned school officials, I was too proud to have her repeat a grade – what would my friends think?

Norman Vincent Peale’s advice is this, “Who doesn’t make mistakes! The greatest error of all is to let any mistake destroy your faith in yourself. The only sensible course is to study and analyze why you made the mistake. Learn all you can from it, then forget it and go ahead. Figure on doing better next time.” When we know we make a mistake, fix it NOW, learn from it & move along.

An English fisherman was exaggerating about the size of fish he caught to a group of friends in a pub. As he threw his arms out to show the size, he hit the waitress who was delivering tea. An ugly dark stain grew from the tea splashed on the wall. The fisherman was embarrassed. Jumping up, one of his guests took a pen from his pocket and began to draw an outline around the stain. Soon a picture appeared of a magnificent royal stag with antlers spread – drawn by Sir Edward Landseer, England’s premier painter of animals.

Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch Christian who suffered horribly and lost her entire family in Nazi concentration camps for protecting Jews, took an interesting look at mistakes she made. “God can give a straight blow with a crooked stick. He blesses us in spite of our blunders.” We’re going to make unplanned mistakes, but God is still in the blessing business. God assures us in the book of Romans that “… for those who love God all things work together for good.”

We all make mistakes as parents. Some will bring laughs now & at family gatherings throughout the future. Some have devastating effects on our children that we and they have to work hard to overcome. How do we treat mistakes? Our children watch and will learn from us how to work through their mistakes.

None of us are perfect as individuals – nor are our marriages perfect.  As we work together to maintain our love and a strong marriage, our homes will be a good environment for growing and happy children.