...hold your mistake up...

last week i was in seattle, and it was very good for my soul. while i was falling asleep on the couch in the town house, i had a revelation....mistakes do not equal sin. weird. now maybe this means nothing to everyone else, but i've spent the majority of my life equating mistakes with sin. last summer while i was preparing for mission adventures with dave and phil, dave said something that blew my mind away. he said, don't worry if you mess up, you've never done these kinds of things before, it's ok to make mistakes. i didn't fully understand why that comment was so huge for me, but now i do. when dave told me that i felt so free. no one's ever told me it was ok to mess up before. when i'm faced with things that i could potentially make a mistake on (which is almost everything) i either go crazy trying to make it perfect or don't try at all. it was because i figured if i made a mistake in the process it wasn't even worth attempting. i'm not so afraid of life anymore. i wish everyone understood how huge this revelation was for me. why didn't someone tell me this earlier. everytime i screwed up something, or made a mistake i thought i was sinning and would have to repent or i would go straight to hell. i don't know where i got my previous thinking, but it definately messed with a lot of my life decisions. so now i have all this freedom and i'm very happy.