From The Pastor’s Pen – By Brian Horrobin
John F. Kennedy once said, “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan; no one wants to claim it.”
I think President Kennedy was certainly on to something when he said that, but if embraced, failure can be your best stepping stone to success.
Years ago when I was in my early elementary school years my mom decided to make a huge batch of strawberry jam for us to enjoy for the whole winter.
I distinctly remember the night we had the taste test.
The jam tasted great but it didn’t set and was way too runny for use as jam.
My mom was devastated at her failed efforts and planned to throw the whole batch out.
That was when my dad retrieved the carton of vanilla ice cream from the freezer and proudly proclaimed that what was a bomb in the jam ranks was a blue ribbon winner in ice cream topping.
We ended up eating every last bit of mom’s “failure” and were even disappointed when the last drop was used up.
I finished last in every single track race that I ran in my ninth grade.
The coach wisely used my failure as impetus to train harder and stick with it.
By grade 12 I was winning races against the very same people who had cleaned my clock three years earlier.
Success, however, is not about winning.
It is about learning from your failures in order to grow and move forward in life.
God made you and you are not a failure – just a success that’s not quite reached its potential!
So don’t stay down when you’ve failed.
Get back up and see what God can do with you!
do with you!
