Do your kids know it is ok for them to fail? Failure is one of those life lessons not easy or enjoyable to learn. Read how GK points us to the One Who holds us and grows us even when we fail.

The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.

Psalm 145:14

Failure – it’s inevitable. I wish I could remove failure and flaws from my very existence and just live in perpetual awesomeness where I never messed up and always did the right thing. In my head I know this is impossible, but in my heart I still believe I can somehow achieve this level of perfection if I just try hard enough and will myself to make the right decisions. However, when it comes down to it I know sin is a part of my life. So how can we get our hearts in line with our heads and move forward to glorify God after we’ve made a royal mess of things?

1. Identify what went wrong – Figure out where things started going downhill. Often this was a poor decision made in the heat of the moment. Or maybe this was the easier of two options at the time. But most of the time it seems like gut reactions or hasty decisions spur from bigger heart issues like anger or pride. Ask God to show you where your heart was in that initial moment. Maybe it was thinking you had this one under control and didn’t need to pause to ask the Lord what to do, but the Bible says to pray without ceasing! That means forever and always bringing Him into our matters and asking the Holy Spirit to guide us.
2. Seek out other options – Rather than spending time stewing on what you did wrong, spend time seeking out some Biblical alternatives. Although it may seem like our modern day problems don’t fit into the Bible, our heart issues definitely match up. The Bible has plenty to say about anger, jealousy, & laziness among other things. Finding out what the Bible counsels us to do with various issues is a better occupation of time than beating ourselves up over failure.
3. Confess and ask forgiveness – Once you’ve figured out where the failure was and learned what should have happened instead, be public about it! If what you did wronged someone else go talk to them and ask for forgiveness.  Share with them what you’ve learned and where your heart is now. Coming to someone in humility is a great way to invite others along the path of righteousness.  Maybe your failure was solo, and didn’t really have much impact on other people. Confessing it to a friend sheds light on sin, and sin brought out of darkness has less impact and power on our lives.

Acknowledging our failures and choosing to learn and grow from them requires both humility and patience. Slowing down the guilt train causes us to turn to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, with the dependence He asks of us.

Camper Corner

We all often fail, but what we do with that failure affects our relationship with God. How do you feel when you know you’ve messed up? What are some ways we can learn and grow from our mistakes?