The Word for Today

by Bob and Debby Gass

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‘A righteous person may fall…but he gets up again…’ Proverbs 24:16 GWT

You can tell a lot about somebody by how they respond to life. Everybody gets knocked down, but how fast you get up again is what counts. Verla Wallace says: ‘Failure teaches us things we can’t learn any other way… Treat it as a visitor allowed to deliver unpleasant news, but don’t let it take up residence… All failures are not equal. For example, when a beautiful, talented young woman is the first runner-up in a Beauty Pageant, some say she failed. Yet some people would give their right arm to be named the second most attractive female in a national competition. It’s a matter of perspective… [examine] your failures and weigh them according to their importance in the overall scheme of things…I once received a ‘D’ at college… it’s ridiculous, but that sticks in my mind like a pebble in my shoe. Why do I fixate on that and not the fact that it happened during the term I carried nineteen credit hours, worked part-time, got engaged, and spent six weeks in the college health centre with mononucleosis? When I put the experience in context, it loses its power to undermine my confidence. Failure teaches us what’s important. I have a friend who was downsized out of a job… It caught her by surprise because she was good at her work. "I tended to be full of pride," she says. "I got away with it because I was so successful. Losing my job…humbled me. With pride you have no permission to fail. It’s a heavy yoke…and I don’t wear it any more. I feel lighter in my spirit without the burden of having to be perfect."’

SoulFood: 1 Chr 16-18, Luke 12:49-59, Ps 119:41-48, Pr 21:1-3

The Word for Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright 2013

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