Never give up!
One day as we were driving along my son Caleb was reading as he often does in the car. He stopped reading and started talking to me about knives. Something in his book mentioned a knife which brought back to his memory his recent knife accident. He had been in the kitchen one day getting a snack and accidentally cut his finger. As we were driving, he went on to tell me that just because you get cut once that doesn’t mean you will never use a knife again the rest of your life. He said how if you use knives you may get cut by accident a time or two but that doesn’t keep you away from knives forever. I said so what is the lesson from this? He said never give up!
I thought this was wise advice!
How many times in life do we face something that we feel we have messed up on in the past and then we are fearful of trying again? How often does something not turn out as we expect or hope and so we tend to avoid those situations because we fear we will be disappointed again?
We should not stop trying just because we mess up, face disappointments, things aren’t going as originally planned, or something is difficult for us. We need to pray, persevere, and keep working at it.
We often want things to just be easy and happen quickly. It’s so much easier that way, but that isn’t the reality of life! Sometimes we are successful on our first try but other times we must try and try again! Maybe it is losing weight or restoring a relationship. Maybe it is learning to paint or figuring out your budget. During these times we need to remember that God has a purpose for all that waiting and redoing.
Think about the last time that something didn’t go your way and you had to try again. What lessons did you learn because you had to redo whatever it was instead of just completing it easily the first time? If you had not gone through that a second time you would have missed out on some lessons. Also, many times God has big blessings in store for us that I think we may miss out on because we give up too quickly.
We have many examples in God’s Word of those who persevered in whatever God gave them to do.
“As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.” James 5:11
“But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13, 14
Whatever you are working towards, keep working. Don’t let past disappointments keep you from future possibilities and blessings.
And if you accidently cut yourself with a knife, learn from the mishap, but don’t be afraid of knives the rest of your life. Never give up!
Have a day of blessings!
beautifully encouraging.
Amen, Bethany. I so needed to read that this morning. Yes, life is full of disappointments, but we should never give up and trust the Lord.
I left a comment yesterday. Hmm… Great thoughts,Bethany! I love how your son realized to never give up. I needed to be reminded of this!