Useful mistakes?

Sometimes, things don’t work out quite like we had hoped or expected. St. Teresa of Avila has some really great thoughts for times like these:

“To reach something good, it is useful to have gone astray.”

I love this sentiment! How often do we think of “going astray” as being useful? The temptation is to think of these times as “mistakes” or a “waste of time,” but she knew from experience that God works all things for our good – even the times when we think we screwed up!