LEARN FROM OTHERS

Hebrews 6:12 Imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

The goal of imitation is to aim to adopt strategies that have worked before and to incorporate the into one’s way of life. However, there should be  another side to this adoption which makes room for none-adoption. In other words, imitation should also make room to accomodate adaptations where one eliminates approaches that do not work, or tweaks things to enhance efficiency.

On my read this morning, a message caught my attention “it is necessary to learn from the mistakes of others. You will not live long enough to make them”. It is interesting that Saint Paul in writing to Timothy mentioned that “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16)and that holds true because in the pages of scripture, we don’t only find good guys and stories of super heroes.

In it, we see glaring weakness and limitations of men and women. Many of whom were cut to the ground because they failed to rise above their weaknesses. They became templates for our learning. The truth is

There are some mistakes you cannot afford to make yourself just for the learning. They are way too expensive and too costly.

Your best bet is to learn from others who have made those mistakes  and device strategies to avoid making them yourself.

You are in real trouble if you have to make every mistake yourself before you learn. Experience is not always the best teacher, because the lesson always comes after the the price has been paid. You cannot always afford that.

#sly