Life & Therapy

My six-year-old nephew told me a story. He was in school, and he bumped into a girl who got very upset with him. This made him feel mortified, so he started to cry. His teacher told him something that seems to have changed his entire perspective on life. As he described her words, he threw his hands up in the air as high as his arms could reach, and then shouted emphatically, while shaking his hands around, “She told me, EVERYBODY MAKES MISTAKES!!!!”
We hear this phrase a lot in life, and it may even seem like a cliche, but to my nephew, this was a revelation that freed him from the shame he was feeling. How often do we make mistakes and dwell on them as if that is all we have done? We might inadvertently hurt someone, then apologize, make amends, and receive forgiveness from that person, but then still punish ourselves long after the fact. We might make a mistake that leaves us feeling foolish, exposed and vulnerable. When we dwell only on our mistakes, we are binding ourselves up in shame and mortification.
We can free ourselves just as my nephew was freed by his teacher’s words. The next inevitable time that you make a mistake, try to imagine your own little six-year-old inside, arms raised high, hands shaking, excitedly shouting, “EVERYBODY MAKES MISTAKES!!!!!”