God Makes 'Mistakes,' but Only When He Means to.

I was listening to the scriptures on lds.org a few days ago somewhere in the apostles of Paul.  I can't remember where, but it mentioned something about how all the creatures God has made are good for our consumption.  This scripture was probably talking about the removal of the prohibition of eating certain meats as outlined in the law of Moses, but I was only half listening and my mind was completely taking things out of context when I imagined eating mosquitoes--yeah that's pretty gross.

Anyway, after that stupid thought I was thinking about how a lot of scriptures seem to talk about how everything God made is so wonderful and good for us and I got to thinking about pests, diseases, natural disasters and all that.  And the old saying came into my mind again "God doesn't make mistakes."

Then I thought well what if Barack Obama had signed a bill which allowed scientists to genetically engineer deadly viruses for population control purposes--I'm sure people would view that as a mistake, but God created HIV, the flu, colds, etc.  Did He make a mistake?

I mean think about it, God created a bunch of things that plague mankind--which if any man had created we would definitely view them as mistakes, but we say stuff like "God doesn't make mistakes!" to justify our lack of understanding towards the individual struggles of others.

Let's get one thing clear--God did not create this world to be a paradise full of butterflies, magic unicorns, mermaids, fairies where everything we need grows on trees and where we all sit around eating fruit while lambs play with lions and our little children in endless bliss!

Yes God did create a beautiful world with many lovely things in it, but God also  created this world to be full of pains, sicknesses, trials, abnormalities and problems.  This life is a testing ground to help us learn to be more like God.  We need to bitter to comprehend the sweet, we need ugly things to understand beauty, we need sadness to understand happiness, we need death to understand life.  God knows that we need opposition in all things to grow and learn.

So many things God has done and many things he allows to happen really do fit into man's common definition of a 'mistake.'  But to God they are not mistakes, but essential pieces in an extremely well thought out plan that will guide his children to eternal life and happiness.