Failure

"Failure is not final." My grandma keeps saying that to me. It's only really in the last few days that I've actually thought about what she actually means. To me, it's something like the following...

Failure does not define you.

Failure doesn't take away from the person you are and the person you are going to be in the future. So don't let it!

Grasp the opportunities that failure gives you with both hands. Failure allows us to examine ourselves and to see where we went wrong and how we can fix it. Failure is part of the refining fire that we all go through to become more Christlike.

Failure is what Jesus looked for in people. He looked for the down and outs, the outcasts, the rejected, the people who had failed miserably. Can you recount a single time in the Bible where Jesus chose the 'perfect'? Nah, that wasn't His style. He understood that perfection is something that human beings created out of pride and a desire to be respected and powerful. What's perfect in God's eyes? Not us, but Jesus. If we lay our failures down at the foot of the cross, take on board the valuable lessons we have learned and accept forgiveness, God won't see us as failures. All He'll see is the gorgeous, irresistible beauty of Christ being worked through us, rather than the stain of sin.

If failure pulls us away from people but draws us nearer to God, it's totally worth going through all the pain and confusion and everything else that comes with it. Don't you think?

All that stuff gives me hope. If other people want to define me by my failings then I'm cool with that. But in the end, only God has the right to define who we are. As His child, I'm pretty sure that regardless of what the world thinks, I'm precious to Him. You are too - so start living like it! :)