Beautiful Failures

Live Oak with Spanish Moss

Honeycreek, Georgia

March 2011

Psalm 44:26 NIV

"Rise up and help us; redeem us because of your unfailing love."

I sat at the table as my classmates played outside during recess. Tears trickled down my cheeks as I folded and refolded the woodpecker so he would bend and move on the tree to strike it.  My friends already had finished at least fifteen minutes ago.

Mrs. Rothert, my Kindergarten teacher, had already asked me several times to stop working and go outside to play, but I was too stubborn. I didn't want to fail. I didn't budge from my chair.

Even when I was four years old, I was driven to succeed. I didn't want to give up until I fixed the problem.

In third grade we went to the chalkboard by rows to solve long-division math equations. My group was given a difficult problem. The students in the other rows gave up and went back to their seats. I remained at the board until I got the correct answer. I don't like to lose.

The high school debate team I coached for seven years was quite successful for our size and limitations. I had several national qualifiers and one student who placed in a nationally ranked round.

I have a friend, a debate coach, who took his students on trips for "the fun of it."  I told him I didn't understand that concept.  I don't have fun if we don't win. If we don't bring home a trophy, what's the point of competing? 

It's a family joke about my competitive nature. However, the other side of the coin is, when I fail to achieve a goal, it hurts.  I don't like to fail, so when I do, I mope. I become gloomy. I don't handle failure well. 

I never finished the woodpecker in the tree in Kindergarten. I could never make it bend and hit the tree like it was supposed to. Forty-six years later, I still remember sitting at the table, lost in frustration, trying to glue and fold colored paper, while feeling like a failure.

Thankfully, God redeems the failures of my life--all of them--from the trivial to the serious.  If only folding a woodpecker into a tree were the worst failure I've had! But no--there are bigger ones than that. 

God has taken them all into account, redeemed them, and through His grace, turned my failures into victories.

When I look back over the course of my life, I can see where my "failures" (or "mistakes") actually turned into beautiful blessings because God's hand touched my life.

Whatever God touches is perfect. He doesn't fail at anything.  
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Dear Lord, Thank you for redeeming my failures and blessing my life.