Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Sweet Failure

Failure.

Not a word we like to often hear or live out, but it inevitably comes into our lives.

I'm going to be very transparent and tell you about a certain aspect of my life. Today I took the road test to achieve my driver's license... I failed. Yes, I don't like to admit this, being of an age when society looks down on you if you are not a licensed driver, yet I failed. Not greatly or dramatically with a grand story of epic failure -- just a simple, "You have failed your driver's test; come back when you feel ready to take it again."

I know this is not the end of the world. This is not the first time failure and I have crossed paths. I'm confident that the Lord will let me pass in His timing, but even with this knowledge, the looming word casts its shadow in the hopes of darkening my outlook.

Are you going through any failures during this season of your life? Did you not pass your exam, let a friend down, burn your casserole, or not advance in your piano division? You're not alone, and it's going to be alright. Find strength in admitting failure to the people who love you and move forward with the lessons you learned from your failure.

It's not fun... but you WILL grow in Christ, and doesn't that make failing sweet?




1 comment:

  1. Aww, you'll make it. I didn't even attempt my road test until I was 18 and it took me 3 attempts that year before I was successful. I find I've learned the most in my failures.

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
    ~Teddy Roosevelt

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