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Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool that repeats his folly . Proverbs 26:11
I must admit this proverb doesn’t paint a pretty picture in the mind, but it does drive home a point doesn’t it. Success books are full of phrases stating that mistakes are natural, but the problem lies in not learning from these mistakes. I think this is pretty easy to agree with. Even the sayings like "never give up" "try, try and try again" etc. are only useful, IF we try a new way. You should never give up the dream, but you can always give up the path you are trying to get there by. If you hit a wall, why would you keep running at it, hurting yourself, getting up, dusting yourself off, running at the wall again and repeating the process? Why not take some time and re-think the plan. Perhaps you can climb the wall, or how about digging under it, but repeating the same mistake eventually just wears out your will to reach the goal.
If you have children, think of how you handle situations where your child does something wrong in your eyes. Now think of how your reaction may differ if this was the ninth time you had to scold your child for this action. Does your view on the situation change in any way? I wonder if it is any different for our Heavenly Father? Does there come a time when he begins to wonder why we are avoiding His guidance?
Yes to err is human, but maybe only a fool continues to repeat the actions. The way to avoid repeating our erroneous actions is too slow down and to think where the error was. From my example above, the final goal is not necessarily the error, hitting the wall was the error. Stand back, get a new view on the situation and re-aim. Maybe just stepping back from the problem we can see away around the wall which may be even easier than climbing over or digging under the wall. Always take the time to step back from the problem in order to learn the solution, very seldom can we solve the problem while we are still in it. Step back, get a new view and then proceed… in new direction, not back to the trouble.
When a wise man is advised of his errors, he will reflect on his conduct. When his misconduct is pointed out, a foolish man will not only disregard the advice but rather repeat the same error. -Buddha
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