Learning from the Past

What do we do with our past failures and mistakes? This was somewhat the discussion that I had with Prof. Thomason. I struggle with blaming myself for things in the past. Satan knows my weakness to come down on myself and my tendency to say, "I failed!" It haunts me sometimes, looking back and seeing where I did not achieve and immediately Satan steps in and says, "If you would have done this things would be different" or "You just lack things to ever do this successfully." And those wounds cut deep! But talking with Prof. Thomason again allowed me to see those as lies, to not dwell on the things of the past, but to take them and learn from them. What are the positives that came out of events in the past and how can I use those to grow and work towards the future?
He took me to the quote of Michael Jordan when he said, "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." We will fail at times in our lives, but failure is not a bad thing. It teaches us valuable lessons and can inspire us to work harder and learn from these mistakes so we do not repeat them. Do mistakes and failures hurt? They can cut deep, deep wounds and are many times very painful, but we do not have to let them haunt us. God is the Great Healer and ultimately He wants us to look to Him in these times and ask Him to teach us and guide us, so that we can learn and grow to become better disciples of Christ.