WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM ONE OF YOUR FAILURES?

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM ONE OF YOUR FAILURES?

 

You can’t escape failure. It can crop up in your vocation, education,

marriage, or parenting. It can be a moral failure, a sin

of omission, or a case of poor judgment. What’s the benefit of

digging up an old failure and reliving that sadness? Why bother

to recall an ethical, legal, financial, or relational problem? It’s

for one reason only: so you can record what, if anything, you

learned from it. God is patient, but he is also lovingly persistent.

He expects you to learn from your mistakes or to retake

the test. So, what good thing have you learned from one of

your failures? Remember that each failure you learn from will

be one less failure you have to worry about during God’s next

purpose for your life.

 

THERE’S NO SHORTAGE OF FAILURES

 

The value of a failure is in what you learn from it. For example,

through a failure, did God teach you to consider others’

feelings, to pray for wisdom, or to think before you speak? What

was the takeaway from one of your failures? Did you learn to set

appropriate boundaries, live in gratitude, stop judging others,

or show kindness to those who hate you? Did you learn not to

take shortcuts; that perfectionism can give you an ulcer; that

what goes around comes around; or that God is faithful?

Dottie McDowell, wife and helpmate of Josh at Campus

Crusade for Christ, eventually decided to take bold measures to

pass the test that she felt she had failed too many times.

 

DOTTIE MCDOWELL GETS DO-OVERS

 

After becoming a Christian in her senior year of college,

Dottie prayed that God would allow her to marry a man who

wanted to make an impact for Christ around the world. The

Lord directly answered that prayer. She soon met and married

her husband Josh, who became an international author and lecturer

with Campus Crusade for Christ. It is her joy and privilege

to help Josh reach people with the gospel message.

 

In the front of Dottie’s Bible, she has written these words:

“The most important thing I can do in life is to take God’s

Word seriously.” Her fervent prayer is that she will be faithful

to this challenge and that she will help others to do the same.

She says she is blessed to have been raised by a loving mother

who constantly told her what a delight and honor it is to be a

mom. God used her mother’s life to instill in Dottie a desire to

be a mom who trusts the Lord. She believes that God, in turn,

has called her to encourage others—especially mothers—to

trust him and to delight in the children he has given them.

 

Dottie recalls one of her repeated failures: “I sometimes sent

one or more of my children off to school with an unkind word

or attitude. I learned that I could do something about this particular

failure. I made a vow that if I acted in this way, I’d stuff

my pockets with candy kisses, drive right over to the school,

get the child out of class, apologize—and then share the candy

kisses!” She adds, “Always ask God for a chance to start over.

He is a God of second chances—and third, and fourth, and

fifth!”

 

What Have You Learned from One of Your Failures? Peter Failed

 

Peter denied knowing Jesus three times. Later, Jesus gave

Peter a chance to accept him three times. Peter did, and then

went on to serve and lead others. Read Mark 14:66–72 and

John 21:15–19. If Jesus reached out to Peter with abundant

love after Peter had failed him so brashly, don’t you think the

Savior of the world will do the same for you when you fail?

 

SCRIPTURE TO PONDER

 

No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be,

but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing:

Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,

I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize

for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.

(Philippians 3:13–14, NLT)

 

SUGGESTED PRAYER

 

Dear Lord, I, _________, admit to you and to my dear

brothers and sisters that I am still not all I should be, but I am

focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past

and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the

end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through

Christ Jesus, is calling me up to heaven.Today I thank you for

forgiving me for all my failures! I ask you to stay by my side,

as I learn from my next mistakes.

 

So . . . What Insight, Prayer, or Action Step Has God Laid on Your Heart Today?