Teach Me How to Fail

Success is on the same road as failure; success is just a little further down the road. Jack Hyles

Failing is not a disgrace unless you make it the last chapter of your book. Jack Hyles

I read an article recently in our local newspaper that was written by a senior at a local high school. The statement that caught my attention was this:  “There is still one thing I fear I never learned: how to fail.”  Marisa Charpentier

As I read the article this high school senior talked about how school teaches students how to solve math problems, write essays and formulate experiments based on guidelines given to students by the teacher. Structure prevents students from exploring their own creative abilities and problem-solving skills. Students often ask the teacher what will be covered on the test or what an assignment should look like so that they can achieve a high grade.

When I read this I started thinking about how this was true when I was in school.  We are taught to color inside the lines and if we go outside the lines we fail.  We were taught from the time we entered school that failure was unacceptable and we learned to fear failure. 

I recently read an article about Thomas Edison. Edison attended public school for 12 weeks.  During that time he was perceived as hyperactive and prone to distraction and his teacher deemed him difficult so his mother pulled him out of school and taught him at home.  Most of what he learned came from reading and his interest in various subjects.  At the age of 12 he published his own newspaper that he distributed to passengers riding the train.  He had failures including an electronic voting recorder that would quickly tally votes in the legislature.  The thing he never did was stop trying.  By the end of his life he had invented and patented the light bulb, phonograph and the first motion picture camera and the alkaline battery.  He had over 1000 patents.

If we look at it from a biblical perspective, there were many failures there too.  Peter failed Jesus when he denied Him.  David failed God when he had Uriah killed and committed adultery with Bathsheba. 

What can we learn from failure?  We learn that it doesn’t have to be our final chapter.

      

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I fail over and over again. Sometimes I fail in my job, other times I fail my family and most importantly I fail You.  One of the most important things I have learned is that through my failure I have a choice.  I can decide to sit down and quit or get up again and move forward.  When I fail in life, help me to get back up and pursue You with all my heart.  

   

Scripture: Pressing Toward the Goal

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12-13