Therefore, confess your sins to one another [your false steps, your offenses], and pray for one another, that you may be healed and restored. The heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man (believer) can accomplish much [when put into action and made effective by God—it is dynamic and can have tremendous power].

James 5:16 AMP

So today I had an interesting and wonderful opportunity to be interviewed by my amazing middle sister about living with dyslexia. I didn’t mind it and thought it would be an easy thing to do and explain. It’s funny how you don’t notice things until someone asks about them.

You see one of the thought-provoking questions my sister asked was what advice I would give other people living with dyslexia. And there were three things:

• Know that dyslexia can affect other areas of your life.
• Find people that appreciate your differences when you don’t.
• Stick up for your mistakes.

Now I could go into the other two but I really wanna focus on that last one: sticking up for your mistakes. Whether you have dyslexia or don’t, this is something I find hard for most people to do. I don’t mean just taking responsibility for a mistake, which we should definitely do. I don’t mean that you cry and feel guilty about it either.

Sticking up for your mistakes means that you admit you made a mistake and learned (or are learning) from it. You are not ashamed of your mistake. It’s not an excuse or something to hide. You admit it, learn from it, and keep going. Maybe you even accept it and say that if you hadn’t made that mistake, you would’ve never known the right way.

Maybe you’re good about this, but I’ll admit, I’m still working on this. So many times when I make a mistake, I feel like I have to make up for it. I scramble to fix it before it lasts in people’s minds. If I trip and fall, I pose because I meant to fall. If I misspell a word, or if say one incorrectly, well I was just nervous or having a bad day. I’m missing a lot of shots and have a bad shooting day because it’s suddenly hard to focus my sight or stay consistent. I just need to try harder. There’s always some cover-up or solution for my mistake. Like it’s some zit on my face I can cover with the make-up of excuses or solutions.

Covering up my mistakes over and over gets tiring. Especially when my mistakes have lasting effects. I hurt and ache because I fell. Well, I can’t complain because I “meant to” do that and complaining makes what I meant to do look dumb. Incorrectly saying something and the insecurity that sparks in my mind is just a wayward thought. Not an issue I deal with daily. The frustration of the lack of consistency in my shots and difficulty of aiming and how I have to try harder again, that doesn’t discourage me.

NEWS FLASH: All of that is a lie. And I have told myself all of those things pretty recently.

Sometimes, a lot of times, when I fall I hurt myself. It hurts and I have to slow down. I have an insecurity about communicating and saying the wrong thing. It’s a great relief that God controls the tongue and hands are great communicators too. It is discouraging to struggle and have patience with myself again and again because it takes time for me to learn. Good thing that there’s hope that no matter how long, I can and will learn. There are people who believe in me and know I can get it. And if not them, God believes in me.

NEWS FLASH: That’s the truth. God had to remind me of those things pretty recently too.

I have to admit my mistakes, and stick up for them like I would stick up for Tony Stark in Captain America: Civil War. Was Tony Stark wrong about the Accords? Maybe (yes). Could he have done things better? Definitely! But that doesn’t mean I don’t like him. In fact, I knew that would happen, I knew he would mess up, and I still like him. I still stick up for him. Why? Because he’s emotional, impulsive, and guilt-ridden, he’s also a hero. At the end of the day (well movie), I believe that he will learn and get better. So I stick up for him, stand by him because in the end, just like I knew he would, he learned.

If I can do that for a fictional character, stick up for their mistakes because I know they can learn, I should do it for myself. No more cover-up or scrambling to fix it. No more ignoring or just dealing with the aftermath. I’m going to stick up for my mistakes because God can work with heartfelt prayers. He will accomplish much more than I can ever imagine with them. And more than I believe in myself or Tony Stark, or any superhero, I believe in God.

I stick up for my mistakes because my help comes from above. I stick them up high and give them to Him. Then pray, learn, and move on. He will give the increase. It may not come the way I expect it, or it might take longer than I want, but I believe and trust in God. He will take my mistakes and get the glory. That’s what I’m really sticking up for.