Are You A Friend of Failure?

 

Most likely your goal in life is not to fail. Failure isn’t something that is rewarded in society. If you fail your math test, you don’t get a high five from your friends. If you fail to remember your girlfriend’s birthday, you don’t get a party thrown for you. If you fail to remember to do your homework, your teacher doesn’t give you extra credit. Failure is not something that people are searching for. If we’re honest, most of us would like to avoid failure at all costs.

However, failure isn’t always as bad as it seems. There can be times in your life that failure can be your friend. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

1. When It Helps You Learn.
   When failure helps you learn it isn’t bad. Instead of holding your head down because you failed, choose to look at failure as an opportunity to learn. When you learn from your mistakes, you grow stronger.
   One time I had a chance to learn from failure came when I bought a new car. The car I purchased hadn’t been checked out by a mechanic. When I got it home, to my horror the car ended up costing more to fix than the purchase price. I learned a valuable lesson from that experience. I learned to not buy a car unless its been inspected by a mechanic.
2. When It Motivates You.
   Failure isn’t always bad if it motivates you to do better. I learned this lesson when I had a job as a waitress. I was bad at waiting tables. I was so bad that my boss told me I should look for another job because I wasn’t catching on. I could have given up. I could have said this just isn’t for me, or I won’t get it. However, I let my failure motivate me to do better. I memorized the restaurant’s menu. I came in early to practice entering orders in the computer. Eventually, with some time, I got really good at my job.
   Failure isn’t bad when you’re able to let it motivate you to do better. Click to Tweet When you fail, don’t let it stop you. Instead use your failure to push you to be better.

The good thing to know about failure is that everyone experiences it. One of the best stories in the Bible about failure is the story of Moses. Moses knew that God had an awesome plan for his life, and he got a little too excited about it. In his excitement, he ended up killing another man. He failed big time.

The man replied, “Who appointed you to be our prince and judge? Are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?” Then Moses was afraid, thinking, “Everyone knows what I did.” – Exodus 2:4

The great thing about Moses though was that he did recover from his failure. He was able to accomplish the plan that God had for him and his life. He was able to walk away from a huge failure and step into the awesome things that God had for him.

It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible. – Hebrews 11:27

Moses led Israel out of slavery and become one of the great heroes in the Bible. He didn’t let his shortcomings stop him.

I don’t know what you’re facing. You might have messed up in a big way. You may feel like there’s no hope or that you’re worthless because of your failure. However, that’s not the truth. The truth is we don’t always make the right decisions and we don’t always do the right thing, but if we will let failure teach us and motivate us to be better, we can become a friend of failure.

Sometimes You Win–Sometimes You Learn for Teens: How to Turn a Loss into a Win

This book will help you turn a loss into a win in your life!