Failure Is Never Final

Yesterday - or the other day - may have been the final day of your
divorce, the day you were rejected, or the day you lost or buried a
loved one; but remember that today is the first day of the rest of your
life. It is a day of new beginnings. If you haven't done your grieving,
do it now. Face, accept, and resolve your pain; get up even if you have
to drag yourself up, and go on. To do this effectively, there are
several valuable qualities you need to have.

Have the right attitude. Attitude is what makes the difference between a
painful experience becoming a failure or a success. You can let the
failure leave you timid and afraid to step out again for fear of being
hurt or you can determine that your failure will be you teacher. You can
allow your failure to hurt you or help you. True, you need mountain top
experiences from time to time to give you encouragement, but you don't grow
through these. It is in the valley of your disappointments and through your
failures that you are given the opportunity to take stock of your life and move
toward a greater level of growth and maturity.

Know what your purpose in life is. The more clearly defined that purpose
is - and the more deeply it is embedded in your conscious and
unconscious mind - the less failure will set you back. A spacecraft en
route to the moon is off course 90 percent of the time. It's pulled back
by the earth's gravity. It's continually drawn to one side of the other
by other forces. But is has a built in computer that has a singleness of
purpose that homes in on the moon. The computer is making continual
corrections to keep the spacecraft on target with its purpose and goal.
Lives are like that. If your eye is on your goal, if you have a
singleness of purpose, nothing will stop you getting to where you are
going.

Remember that failure is an event, not a person. Because you have failed
in your marriage or job, in another relationship, or other situation,
doesn't mean that you are a failure as a person. Not at all. Realize
that the only real failure is not to try, or not to keep on trying, or
not to get up one more time. The important thing is to learn from your past,
to use it as an opportunity to grow, and to move ahead.

Give God a chance. If you feel like you have failed or believe you've
done wrong, ask Him to forgive you - and be sure to forgive yourself.
Then turn your failure into a stepping stone toward a better you. When a
bone is broken and heals, it becomes the strongest part of the bone. The
same is true of you broken places - where you have been hurt, have fallen
or failed, or are afraid. When you bring these to God for His healing, His
strength is made perfect through your weakness.

-- Author Unknown

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