Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Failing Forward



- Failure is the state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and may be viewed as the opposite of success.



This morning, I was watching my 6 month old son trying to crawl. He pushes himself up onto his hands and tries to lift his tummy off the ground. Sometimes he gets frustrated and starts to cry, but the more and more he tries, he longer he is able to hold himself up. It's not easy to watch my kids try something new. As the parent, I want to jump in and help because it's not easy watching them fall down or get frustrated. But in the case of my son learning to crawl, he has to learn to do it himself.

As I was watching my son, I started thinking about Renee Swope's book, A Confident Heart, and Chapter 7 titled "When Doubt Whispers 'I'm such a failure'."

When I watch my children try something new or practice to get better at a skill, I would never call them a failure. Finding what you are good at or learning to walk, for instance, are just a part of growing up. A child learning to walk takes time and more than likely, is going to fall before they are steady on their feet, or borrow Renee's phrase, failing forward.

As I look back at my own life and what I consider failing, I remember the disappointment of my first driving test. I remember the big "D" on my first history (my favorite subject) paper of high school. I remember sitting on the floor crying when my oldest hit the terrible two stage and I seemed to be losing the battle of yet another tantrum.

But in all of these instances, I learned something valuable. With each test, paper and day with my child, I learned from the mistakes I had previously made.

There have also been times when God has allowed me to struggle with a sin or difficult person, to the point of exhaustion. I've cried out to him in confession and pleading to help me. But as I do with my own children, He allowed me to struggle. I believe He has used these times to build patience, perseverance and kindness.

God doesn't look at me as a failure, but He does allow me to fail to help me attain something He wants me to learn. As Renee says in her book "Failure pushes us to do more than we think we can and try other methods of doing things when one way doesn't work. Failure can be hurtful, but it can also be beneficial."

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

For Me Or Against Me




If God is for us, who can be against us?
               Romans 8:31b



"I am never going to be a good enough ____________."

If you're like me, you've filled in that blank more times than you can count. And more often than I like to admit, I'm comparing myself to someone else. Someone more virtuous, more graceful, more beautiful, more...

As I read Chapter 6 in A Confident Heart by Renee Swope, I was challenged to replace all of these statements against myself, or AM, that doubt whispers to me on a daily basis with statements for me, or FM. The FM statements are God's promises to me.

At first I thought, I don't need to do this. I know enough of His promises to me and have the knowledge of when to apply them. But then I had to stop. Obviously I wasn't applying God's promises FM because I was still facing many doubts on a daily, if not hourly, basis.

As I sat down to write out my AM/FM statements, I thought of my daughters. They love to dress up in princess dresses and will often come twirl for me. They will occasionally ask "Am I beautiful, Mommy?" And I rave over how beautiful the are, but I also work really hard at explaining to them that what makes them beautiful is not what they wear, but who they are and how they treat others.

At that moment, God whispered to me,"Don't you think I want you to know the truth about what makes you beautiful? Don't you think that I want you to dwell on my promises and not the lies doubt tells you? I want to show you how much I value you."

Those thoughts from God changes my perspective on the AM/FM statements. So here are some my AM/FM statements.



When doubt tells me that I'll never be good enough, I will cling to the promise that God will complete the good work He started in me. (Philippians 1:6)

When I feel like no one likes me, I will remember that I have been chose by God and adopted as His child. (Ephesians 1:3-8)

When I feel like I'll never be the Christian that I feel I need to be to please God, I will trust that I am free from condemnation and cannot be separated from God's love. (Romans 8:1-2, 31-39)



The same way I want only good things to fill the minds of my chldren about who they are and what truly matters, God wants me to remember His Truths and do away with the doubts of this world.

Who am I?

I am a precious and chosen child of the King. If God is for me, then no one can be against me.

So who are you?