After trying to understand the human mind better, I ran across an odd thing. Whenever someone (normally a christian) does something wrong, they call it a mistake. For example, the other day I was talking to a friend who told me about his brothers girlfriend.
She, a good christian girl, ran into an old ex, and they ended up sleeping together. Later, she confessed and called it a "mistake". He forgave her and she promised to never do it again. But the question I asked was, how could she call it a mistake?
Far too often we try and place the blame of our bad behavior on this one word...mistake. I am sure that it was not a mistake, because the word does not mean what folks think it means. Let me give you an example.
Lets say you walk into a grocery store and as you walk down an isle, you see someone you think you know. You walk up to the person, and find that they were not who you thought they were.
Here is another example. You walk into the store, and see someone who you know you is not someone you know, and after a while, fake that they were someone you know.
Which one is the mistake, and which one is not? It is quite obvious. There is no "intent" behind a mistake. But there is intent behind sinning. was there intent behind her sleeping with her ex? Probably not. But, once she allowed the contact to go further than simple "hello's", that is where sin started. She continued in behavior that would lead from one sin to another.
This is called falling into temptation. Once that happened, the word "mistake" needs to be ignored, and the word intentional sin needs to be used. Is there unintentional sin? Of course. Once you know that what you did was a sin, you need to make sure to never do it again, and ask for forgiveness.
Here is a short video on sin and mistakes. I hope that you enjoy.