Past, Present, Future

"A mistake is only a mistake if we fail to learn from it." I have heard this saying all of my life, and how true and false it is. Let me explain my reasoning for both as it pertains to living the gospel.
As we strive to live God's commandments, Satan throws curve balls at us, sends tidal waves in our direction, and pushes mountains in the middle of our path. Through these tough times, we will falter. We will choose the wrong path every once in a while. Why? Because none of us are perfect. Choosing these wrong paths are mistakes, but as long as we learn from them we will know how to avoid them later on down the road.
A mistake is a mistake, but if we learn how to not make that mistake again then we have learned the lesson that we should have. There have been many times in my life that I have made the wrong choice, driven down the wrong road, and hung out with the wrong crowd. All of these were mistakes, but as I pushed through these trials, I learned a very valuble lesson that I could only learn from making these mistakes.
Mistakes are also always going to be mistakes if we keep looking back at them and beating ourselves up over them. The saying "forgive and forget" applies to us personally as well. In order to learn from a mistake we need to keep truckin along down the road, AND not look back on them. Dwelling on the past can be just as painful and degrading to ourselves as making the same mistake again.
As long as we follow our only perfect example, Jesus Christ, we can lead the best life that we know how. We can turn those mistakes, those past transgressions into lessons well learned. Lessons that we can teach others, lessons that we can apply in our lives to make us happier and more at peace with the things we have done wrong.

I am so thankful for the Saviors perfect example and his atonement. Without repentance it would be impossible for anyone to enter into heaven. This video explains more about why we shouldn't look at the past as much as we should look forward to the future.