Friend, have you ever made homemade waffles? I had but very little experience in making them myself. However, my husband and I recently acquired a waffle maker and I was very excited to give it a go yesterday morning.

Being that I had no instructions, I figured I would learn through the old-fashioned way, experience. I started out with finding a great batter mixture from a recipe and then I made my batter. I then oiled my pan and began filling up both sides of the waffle maker, with a very generous amount of batter and then I shut the lid nice and tight.

Before I knew it, there was batter seeping through the sides and my counter top was white with mixture. Then the waffle maker began to show a good amount of heat and I started to wonder what I managed to do. I did not know if that was supposed to happen. So, I quickly opened the lid; much to my surprise, too soon. Inside, it looked like a partially made, waffle mess. I wanted to just give up. Irritated, I thought that maybe the machine did not work. Then, I humbly realized, that it was probably not the machine, but maybe the operator, me.  I thought about just cleaning up my mess and then counting my losses.

However, in front of me sat a whole bowl of waffle batter and in the other room, two hungry boys. I wanted to give them a big breakfast; so, I knew I must try again.

I figured out that I had too much batter and that I needed to add less. I then figured out, that it is supposed to steam and not to be alarmed. Also, that the red lit up light, would turn off when it was ready. Maybe I should have known this from the get go; but the important thing is, I learned it.

The waffles did end up coming out, just as I had in mind in the end. We all thoroughly enjoyed those delicious homemade waffles; despite that rough beginning. My children even got seconds!

Friend, sometimes life is messy and we make mistakes. It is so easy to just want to give up and count our losses. Although, when we make the decision to learn from our mistakes and try again; it is such an incredible thing! We not only better our situation, but we better our future.

Though I had no waffle maker instructions; we do have instructions for life, His word. Even so, we still will make mistakes, because we are human, but we must not stop learning from them.

Do not give up my friend, ask for God’s help! You will not ever regret not giving up; and through those mistakes you can better become just the person, that God had in mind.

Erin Fitts-Brower

Romans 8:28 NIV

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.