When God created man, it is my understanding that He did not allow Adam and Eve to sin so that they could learn from their mistakes; rather, God created man so that man could live in perfect, sinless existence with God. In this perfect co-existence, God, in His infinite (literally) Wisdom, did not require mistakes for man to learn...

A few months ago, a friend raised a pointed question. She asked if I regretted anything I have done, and whether I would change the past if I could. Then, today I came across a similar question in this book I have called "201 Great Questions." I thought about it a little bit and I thought I would share those thoughts with you. So many times you hear people say "NO!" to this question. They will rationalize that even though they made stupid mistakes, they learned such a valuable lesson, they became a better person. But let's take another look at this from a Biblical perspective. Does God like sin? NO. Does God give us freewill to choose our behavior? YES. Would God prefer us to get it right the first time? YES! Does God give us instructions, guidance and wisdom on how to make good decisions? YES, it's called the Bible! Now, that doesn't mean we always will get it right the first time, and yes, God has allowed, in His mercy, for us to be "refined", for us to change and become more and more like Him when we learn from our mistakes...But doesn't the Bible say how to become more like Him without all the mistakes?

SO my answer is yes, I have a ton of things I regret, and yes, if I could have the wisdom to do things differently, I would go back in time in a second and do a whole lot differently. For sanity's sake, I can't let myself dwell on that thought, however, because I can't go back...I must live with my mistakes. Did I learn from them, you bet I did! But, could I have learned the same things about God (and myself) without the mistakes, DEFINITELY! That's what I think about that question.