Mistakes...

We all make them, mistakes that is. Some are small ones, like putting on a black sock and a dark blue sock when you are getting dressed in the dark so you don't wake up your wife (guilty).

Others are significantly larger like running a red light and getting in an accident (guilty and in my defense the light was in a funky location).

But the worse of mistakes is the ones that are life changing. Yeah I heard a lot of grief that day at the office about my one blue sock and my one black sock. And the humiliation and hassle of dealing with a fender bender is no fun whatsoever. But the mistakes that change lives forever are the ones that really bother me.

And I am not talking about those accidents that all of the sudden happen, I am talking about the self inflicted mistakes. You know the ones where you shoot yourself in the foot type of mistakes.

I have found that many of these types of mistakes boil down to one thing, greed.

Now we normally don't associate greed with mistakes, normally it is about materialism or money but greed can be a driving force in our lives and when it is out of control it can lead to many mistakes. The "want" for things, wether it is that item on the shelf, that boyfriend's love or a position of influence, the things that we really want can drive us to not think things through and make monumental mistakes in our lives.

One of the Ten Commandments that does not get talked about enough is the "thou shalt not covet". What GOD is saying is that we should not look at something and want it so badly that we will do anything to get it. The society we live in today is all about instant gratification, we have a certain time limit set in our minds on how fast thing should be. We think we should be able to get whatever we want whenever we want. I remember asking my Mom for a toy when I was a child and she told me that we did not have the money for it. I asked her, "don't you have any checks?" If I knew I would not get the spanking of my life I would have thought of stealing that toy just because I wanted it. That is a mistake I am glad I did not make, but many have.

I remember a girl I knew in high school who made the mistake of going too far with her boyfriend because he threatened to leave her. She wound up pregnant, the boyfriend broke up with her and she got an abortion all in the span of a few months. I know that she must live with that mistake the rest of her life.

I have lived my entire adult life in the business world and have seen people use one another to make their way to the top. One gentlemen I know told a lie about a fellow employee that secured a big promotion for himself. It was all good till the lie came to the forefront and the truth was exposed. The man who got the promotion was demoted and the one who whas lied about quit the company because they believed a lie. In the end the company was worse off than it started all because of one mistake made by someone trying to get ahead.

So next time you are tempted by greed to make a decision, remember it might be the biggest mistake you ever make...