When I first started delivering, it took me awhile to get used to the GPS on my phone. I hadn't used it much before then, but I also was not familiar with the area I was delivering to. I had one situation where the restaurant was in the same parking lot I was in, but hidden behind another building - and the Google maps based GPS devices are worthless once you get in a parking lot.

Since then, I've gone from "never heard of it," to "I know where that is," to "....Why are you taking me that way ... I want to go THIS way!" With time and repetition, when one puts effort into it, things become easier.

It's that way living the Christian life as well. When one first starts, there are pitfalls that are harder to avoid. Mistakes will be made. They need time to become mature Christians, and that doesn't happen overnight.

In the same way that no one could fault me for not knowing where places were when I first began, we should be careful not to come down too hard on a new Christian who stumbles in the Way.  Better to pick them up, than to stomp on them when they are down there. James 5:16 tells us to "Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working." We are to confess the sins SO THAT we can pray for one another - not so that we can use that to throw in someone's face later, to be suspicious of them, or belittle them.

Now, I still make mistakes sometimes in directions, and likewise, a mature Christian will still make mistakes as well.  The same principle applies - there is no expiration date by which we must have made all mistakes, and can no longer make any after that time.

John said he wrote what we call his first epistle to Christians, "So that you may not sin". But, even so, he knew folks would, so he added, "But if anyone does sin, we (interesting he chooses "we" ... John includes himself as part of this) have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." (1 John 2:1)  Note that John says we have an advocate .... not a prosecutor, not a foe, not an accuser - that position is already taken by our adversary, Satan.  Let's not be Satan's legal aides, shall we?  Let's work with the Advocate.