They say there is a first time for everything, but I say there is a third time for some things.

What I’m referring to is the mistakes we make. Sometimes we can learn from our mistakes. There are other times when we just keep repeating the same mistake over and over.

If you do something for the first time that ends in failure, you may not want to try that again.

I know of people who had a car accident when they were first learning to drive. They were afraid of repeating their error so they decided not to ever drive again.

I think mistakes are important for us to learn from. They shouldn’t scare us away. We should use our mistakes to make corrections, to change the formula, to improve the process. 

That is why I keep using my garage every day. I don’t park outside the garage; I drive my car inside. 

The reason I tell you this is because the other day I drove my car into my garage door. 

You might be thinking that anyone can make a mistake, but this is not the first time I’ve done it.

This is the third time I’ve driven into my garage and wrecked something.

There is another saying, “third time’s a charm” … well, not when it comes to garage doors, it’s not. 

The first two times were a little different. I had a bike on top of my car both of those times and so I didn’t really hit my garage door but the frame above the door – one time destroying my bike rack and the other time knocking the side view mirror off my car.

This time it didn’t involve my bike, but the bike rack still gets a starring role in the story.

Usually when I come home from work, I hit the garage door button when I turn the corner onto our street. That way the door is almost up by the time I get to my driveway. 

This particular day last week, Lily was shovelling the driveway when I came home and she had the garage door already up. 

So when I hit the button, the door started closing instead of opening. As soon as I saw that, I hit the button again, but that only stopped the door. It didn’t send it back up. 

Meanwhile, I was smiling at Lily as I passed her on the driveway until “BOOM!” … The door was just low enough to catch the top of my bike rack.

I probably would have snuck under the door if the rack had not been there, but the lock on it is jammed and I can’t take it off.  

The accident pushed the bottom panel of the garage door off the track and put a good-sized dent in it. Now the alignment is off and the door doctor says I will have to replace the panel. 

At least we don’t need to replace the whole garage door. 

… And just maybe, after the third time, I’ve learned my lesson.

Here’s the thing: It is good to know that God will forgive you when you sin – even if it’s not the first time you have sinned that way. This doesn’t give you a license to sin, but it does give you hope that your failings can be forgiven even if you haven’t learned from your past mistakes.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What failing do you need to learn from? Leave your comments and questions below.

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