SAME MISTAKES.
I want to converse about a post that I came across on Instagram earlier this week. The post reads: “Every time you miss them, read Proverbs 26:11, that’s all the reset you need.” Now, for those unfamiliar, Proverbs is a chapter in the bible. The verse mentioned in the post, 26:11 says; “As a dog returneth to his vomit, So a fool returneth to his folly.” To break this down a little more, this verse is saying; a fool keeps doing the very thing that torments her/him. You see, fools replicate foolish behaviors even though the outcome was bad/detrimentalthe first time around. They will do it again. Now, I know the word “fool” sounds harsh, but we have to call a spade, a spade. If you make a misguided decision or action, and you become cognizant that that action or decision was unwise or not in your favor and you chose to repeat it multiple times, it’s foolish.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/235735361736331856/For exemplification, I’ll use a fictional character from the 1990’s show Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw. For those unfamiliar with Carrie, she is a columnist in New York who has a proneness to repeat mistakes. Carrie’s mistakes are typically with men. These mistakes always involved her on again, off again love interest “Mr. Big.” Now, Mr. Big showed Carrie on numerous occasions with his actions that he was emotionally unavailable, thoughtless, insolent and not ready for the type of relationship she so desperately wanted. She continued to take him back whenever he felt like coming back to her and the end result would always be; Carrie being left emotionally dismantled.
https://breezyevenings.wordpress.com/2019/12/18/mr-big-the-modern-romeo-nightmare/ I said all of that to say this; at some point you have to get tired of experiencing negative ramifications from repeating the same mistakes. How many times do you need to be taught the same lesson? Please understand I just want you to learn from your mistakes the first time around and apply what you learned to your life. We cannot continue this cycle of knowing better and not doing better.
Please allow me to share a few responses from a question I aksed via Facebook. The question I asked was “what is a mistake you made multiple times due to poor choices? What was the outcome?
Response #1: I would say with relationships for me. You forgive someone so many times because you love them, and you want it to work so bad, so you forget about your self-worth and how valuable you are because you want you to be with that person. just general I would say that’s life. I think as humans we are set in our ways, and we always want something to work the way we planned it. The life lesson is that things aren’t always going to pan out. We have to learn to pivot and understand that and make the same mistakes and learn from them. — Male, 30
Response #2: Reached/settled for “low hanging fruit”. The outcome was short relationships and broken homes. — Male, 32
Response #3: I’ve taken my ex-boyfriend back a million times. I know that I shouldn’t be taking him back because all he does is hurt me. He’s cheated on me pretty often in the past so obviously that created trust issue for me. — female, 25
Response #4: I was once the poster child for committing reoccurring oversights. This was with my love life, as I had a bad habit of giving multiple chances to men who showed me exactly who they were the first time around. My pattern was; get treated wrong or less than I deserved on the first try, then take them back after they gave these exceptional apologies accompanied by phemonal speeches about how much I meant to them. This is nothing that I am proud of, but this is my truth. I would make the constant mistake of tripping over words and not believing actions. I have also made my fair share of monetary mistakes. This cycle looked like; making a financial error, understanding why it was an error, and then proceeding to do it again and again. Notice, I learned from all these mistakes on the first try and continued to repeat them. That is a prime example of a fool returning to his folly. — Your Author, 32
As you can see from the responses above, there are plenty of people who have fallen victim to repeating mistakes, including myself. Listen, I understand that first mistake is inevitable. Once that mistake is made multiple times though, it’s no longer a mistake, it’s a choice. We have to stop making poor choices because they are keeping us in the never-ending cycle of unfavorable consequences. I understand that we cannot control everything that goes on around us, BUT we can control the choices we make. Make better choices that are in your favor, that’s all I’m saying.
Key takeaways:
(1) Stop letting people show you who they are more than once.
(2) When it comes to finances, learn from the first mistake. Inflation isn’t getting any better and the cost of living is going up everywhere — this is not the time to put yourself in a financial mess.
(3) Bible verse: Proverbs 26:11 — As a dog returneth to his vomit, So a fool returneth to his folly.” Means a fool keeps doing the very thing that torments her/him — please stop tormenting yourself, you literally don’t have to do it.
