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You're listening to. Maybe You're Like Me, the transparent musings of a God Girl Chasing After Her Purpose. Maybe You're Like Me, is a podcast for dreamers and doers who takes life's lessons and level up to look more like Christ. We'll connect through super relatable stories, growing pains and ah ha moments that most of us share. Just not always out loud. I'm your host, Alicia, Watson, creative entrepreneur, playwright, author, wife, mother, daughter of the king, and so much more. And I can't help but to think that maybe you're like me.
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Hey, hey, beautiful people. Thank you for joining me for another episode of Maybe You're Like Me with Alicia. Watson. How are you doing? Me? I'm doing really well. No complaints. God is truly good. And so I've been really intentional about guarding against negative thoughts lately and especially negative thoughts that are directed toward my myself. I can be super hard on myself, especially when I feel like I have made a wrong decision and I'm working on that. So maybe you're like me and you're dealing with the shame of mistakes. Last year I mistakenly made a bad decision. My daughter ended up in virtual learning for the first half of the year. I hadn't paid attention to the enrollment questionnaire and by signing up trying to cover all my bases and make sure that she would have a spot in virtual school just as an option, I accidentally committed to virtual learning.
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By the time I caught my mistake, it was too late and I couldn't change my selection until January of the next year. Y'all, on the first day of school, I cried like a baby. I felt like I had robbed my daughter of the experience of living her best little extrovert life. After over a year of virtual school, the more I scrolled through the first day of school picks the lower I felt. I dropped my son off at his school and I took some pictures of him, but I couldn't even bring myself to post them to celebrate. I felt so much guilt, so much frustration, and so much sadness for my baby girl. She was so looking forward to being in school, seeing her friends, meeting her teacher, and I just really felt like she was missing out on that.
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But guess what? She didn't even really care. And she even liked the experience better because she could play during the breaks where she finished her work early. She could play during that time too, while everybody else had school had to be lining up or going out to recess or having quiet time. She had freedom. She had more time in the afternoon and morning because she didn't have to commute to school. She had other friends who were virtual, so they just continued on with the same zoom calls that they were on when they were all virtual. So she didn't miss anything socially. And when we got the dreaded notifications, you know those notifications, she was never at risk of exposure to any viruses or anything that her classmates who were in school have been. So we didn't even have that to worry about. All was well when she went to school in January.
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What I'm saying is God worked it all together for her good, but for his glory, he took my mistake and turned it around. That experience was the start to me accepting that it is absolutely okay if I make mistakes and to try to find the lessons and the blessings within them. It was a catalyst for me not judging myself for the simplest of snap fools in my day to day life, things that would make me cringe and turn red, but in reality, no one was really paying attention to. It's definitely a big part of recovering perfectionist journey. The shame of making mistakes is something that goes hand in hand with overthinking and it keeps us stuck. I talked about overthinking before and how we overthink, mostly because we don't want to make a mistake because that brings mental pain, but because we're not perfect, we're going to make some mistakes.
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And sometimes those mistakes cause us to feel shame. Sometimes we're ashamed of ourselves and sometimes we're shamed by others for the mistakes we make. And when your mistakes and shames are public, it makes it even worse. Have you ever been caught in a mistake, caught up in your lie, caught up, stealing, caught up, cheating, caught up, gossiping? Have you ever suffered the consequences of your mistakes, like not being able to get that house car job because you've made the mistake of running up your credit? Did you lash out out of anger and physically hurt somebody? As you rage If, you made public mistakes. There's hope for you too. John eight, two through 11 has a popular story about Jesus and an adulterous woman. It reads at dawn, he appeared again in the temple courts where all the people gathered around him.
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He sat down to teach them the teachers of the law, and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery in the law. Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now, what do you say? They were using this question as a trap in order to have a basis for accusing him, but Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her again. He stooped down and wrote on the ground at this. Those who heard began to go away one at a time. The older ones first until only Jesus was left.
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With the woman still standing there, Jesus straightened up and asked her woman, Where are they? Has no one condemned you? No one sir. She said, Then neither do I condemn you. Jesus declared, Go now and leave your life of sin. Bad decisions don't have to define us. People will try to take your name and replace it with this woman who did that thing. We don't need to condemn ourselves when we make mistakes. Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection covered our sins. That's the good news of redemption and reconciliation. He has taken our guilt and shame upon himself. God's grace and mercy cover our mistakes. We must repent of our sense.
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Of course, we can't keep making the same mistake over and over again because at that point it's not a mistake, it's a choice. It's your character, it's your heart, and you just gotta get to the root of why you're in the cycle of making that same bad decision. And I'm gonna tell you, it's typically a misplaced devotion, worshiping and seeking something in someone other than God. But how do we get up from under the shame of our mistakes? Well, I say first, seek God because condemnation is a tactic of the enemy. It'll make you feel like God is turning his face from you when in fact, when you make a mistake, it's best to run straight to him. Secondly, forgive yourself. No one is perfect. People fall, people fail. You're a person, so you're gonna fall and you're gonna fail.
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Forgive yourself for that and move forward. Be accountable and ask for forgiveness from those you've hurt as a result of your mistake. They don't have to forgive you, but you can still do your part to acknowledge that they had pain, even If you harm them unintentionally evaluate where you went wrong. Do you need to change your environment, your friend group, your habits, your access to things that tempt you? Get busy. Have you ever heard the phrase idle hands are the devil's playground? Are you actively seeking and doing what you're supposed to be doing? What you know you're supposed to be doing? What's most important, what's most fruitful? What's most beneficial for you in this season? And lastly, allow God to cover your shame like he did the naked Adam and Eve in the garden of E.
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Sometimes for that shame to be covered, it has to first be on display. So sharing your testimony takes away the sting of shame and brings glory to God. Remember, God doesn't get glory from your perfection. He said, My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness, so we have to be glad to boast about our weaknesses, our mistakes, our failures, so that the power of Christ can be seen through us, can work through us. Someone might be able to find hope in your mistakes and your story, in your testimony, in your failures, and so can you. Your heart can't heal when you're chained to the past. Let go of the shame and heal. Well, that's all I have for you today.
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If you're like me, I would love to hear from you. Reach out to me on Instagram at the Alicia Watson. Send a DM and let's chat If, you know someone who's like us. Please share this episode with them. Also, please subscribe, rate, and review wherever you listen to fine podcasts. Have a blessed week. Love you much. Okay, bye.
