Tuesday, September 2, 2014

September 2, 2014. RESPONDING TO FAILURE

Tuesday September 2, 2014

'A righteous person may fall...but he gets up again...' Proverbs 24:16 GWT

Responding to Failure

You can tell a lot about somebody by how they respond to life. Everybody gets knocked down, but how fast you get up again is what counts. Verla Wallace says: 'Failure teaches us things we can't learn any other way... Treat it as a visitor allowed to deliver unpleasant news, but don't let it take up residence... All failures are not equal. For example, when a beautiful, talented young woman is the first runner-up in a Beauty Pageant, some say she failed. Yet some people would give their right arm to be named the second most attractive female in a national competition. It's a matter of perspective... [examine] your failures and weigh them according to their importance in the overall scheme of things...I once received a 'D' at college... it's ridiculous, but that sticks in my mind like a pebble in my shoe. Why do I fixate on that and not the fact that it happened during the term I carried nineteen credit hours, worked part-time, got engaged, and spent six weeks in the college health center with mononucleosis? When I put the experience in context, it loses its power to undermine my confidence. Failure teaches us what's important. I have a friend who was downsized out of a job... It caught her by surprise because she was good at her work. "I tended to be full of pride," she says. "I got away with it because I was so successful. Losing my job...humbled me. With pride you have no permission to fail. It's a heavy yoke...and I don't wear it any more. I feel lighter in my spirit without the burden of having to be perfect."'

Taken from the Word for you Today Devotional


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