Thursday

Failure

Recently I heard a mom of three children say, “I want my children to experience failure before they grow up and leave my house and are out on their own. I want to help them work through the failure, learn from the failure, and overcome the challenges of the failure.”

Her statement got my attention. There is a side of me that does not want to see my children fail or experience hardships. But, I do want them to learn to be resilient, to learn to depend on God for help, and to learn to persevere.

James 1:2-4 states, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Trials, hardships, and failures are classrooms for learning patience, humility, and steadfastness. Through them God can increase our faith in Him and grow our dependence on Him. 

We all want the promise at the end of this passage: “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Okay, this may not happen until heaven, but none the less trials can get us closer to these targets.

I do not pray for failure for my children or myself, but I do pray for genuine faith, true humility, and godly grit and resilience. I do not know how God will accomplish this, and I realize the clearest lessons in life often come through moments of failure. Amazingly, God works mistakes, hardships, and trials for the good of Christians. He brings victory from failure.


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