What are mistakes for?

When I was younger, I used to sulk in solitary because of regrets.  I regret doing this and that, I regret meeting this and that, I regret going here and there.  I regret a lot of things that happened to me in the past because they made me fail, they made me cry, they made me lost, they made me unrighteous, most of all they hurt me.

But after quite sometime.  I realized that I should not be regreting the fact I experienced all those in my past.  I realized I should be thankful that I experienced them and I was able to endure them and I was able to make myself anew upon seeing the LIGHT.

WHY?

Because If I hadn't done those mistake in the past, I have nothing to tell my students that they shouldn't do this and that because this might happen to them.  I have nothing to tell my friends to be strong on this and that because in the end this will happen.  I have nothing to testify to my fellow christian community how GOD let everything happen to us to mold us into the kind of christian that HE wants us to be.  I have nothing to tell the world that life is good no matter how hard life is, life is indeed good because it is only through experiencing all the facets in life that we truly know ourselves, our friends and our GOD.

Had I not committed those errors, I wouldn't be able to tell you how a naughty child is whipped, how a lazy person gets nothing, how a whining student is left behind, how a rude mouth gets justice, how a deceitful lover is humiliated, how an unfaithful friend is picked out, how a disobedient child is punished, how an insensitive,undutiful, overconfident wife gets cheated, how an irresponsible person loses his belongings, and how a hard-hearted lump of clay  is singled-out by the POTTER Himself to be molded by His own hands to become a TEACUP.

Friends... there is nothing in this life that we can regret.  Everything has its own reason.  And one of the reasons that I can think of, is that every mistake that we did in the past, every failure that happened to us, every tear, every pain, every wound happened that we may live and tell the tale to the YOUTH of how all of those made us who we are now, how all those made us a better child, a better friend, a better partner, and a better christian, that they may strive to be the BEST.

And if we are able to do that... our mistakes have served their purpose.