Recently my wife, Anna, was telling me about a frustrating experience she had earlier that day. As her hero, I donned my cape and offered several excellent suggestions on how she might handle it. That’s when I realized I’d not only made a mistake—in the words of Yogi Berra, I’d made a wrong mistake. Those are, it seems to me, the kind that we seldom learn from and often repeat. “I don’t want you to fix it,” she said. “I want you to understand how I’m feeling about the situation.” Those words were all too familiar. How many times I’ve heard them after I pushed my counsel upon her! For some reason, I can’t seem to resist making that particular mistake. I suppose, when I think about it, there are plenty of other ways in which I’ve made wrong mistakes. It makes me thankful for all those people who tirelessly exercise tolerance and forgiveness toward me. And make no mistake about that.
Your thoughts? Are there some wrong mistakes you can’t resist making?