When Failure is the Only Path Forward

My husband has spent the better part of his vacation working on one project. An hourglass. Handmade from Cherry wood. The number of issues he has had with this project have been unbelievable at best. Intended to be a gift to his boss who retired yesterday, the nearly finished hourglass sits on my counter anticipating an early demise. I’ve asked my husband to finish it for me. Imperfect though the hourglass is, it is a thing of beauty in my eyes.

When Failure is the only path to move you forward, failure is a beautiful thing.

For his boss, he will be buying new wood, and starting fresh. But this time, he knows exactly how he wants to put this thing together. With a prototype finally finished and a plan for all contingencies, he will have no surprises and no catastrophic mistakes. His only path forward this week — his only chance for success — came through his failure.

Dear Homeschool Mom, do you feel like you are failing today?

Maybe it is in teaching a child to read. Maybe it is in helping your child memorize Scripture. Maybe it is in the planning and execution of your housework. These are all areas I am struggling with right now myself. Maybe you have other areas where failure seems to meet you at every turn. Maybe your own path forward — your only chance for success — is through more failure.

I don’t know how many ways I’ve tried to teach this one particular child to memorize Scripture verses. Out of six children, he is the only one who cannot memorize, and he is not the youngest either. Somewhere, somehow, we are going to get God’s Word sealed into his heart. I just haven’t figured out how to do that yet but I am not giving up. My God is mighty and I am knocking at His door. At this point, my only path forward — my only chance for success — is to keep failing and praying and trying until something works. In this case, I think I Corinthians 15:57-58 applies

1 Corinthians 15:57-58 (NIV) ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.⁵⁸ Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Homemaking is an ongoing battle in my heart. I want to make my home beautiful and pleasant but I lack skill and I have an artistic  personality given to messiness. I’ve tried and failed at a whole lot of homemaking methods that were “sure to succeed”. To me it seems that keeping house is an exercise in futility. The work is never, ever finished and it seems like there is no point. I’m not giving up! I’m working on my attitudes and I’m working on my methods. If for no other reason than the value my husband places on a neat and orderly home and God’s Word to Honor my husband. I will keep searching and working on a set of habits that will give our home that well-kept appeal.

The only true failure is the one that stops you in your tracks.

Failure is not a happy place to be. I know that — I’ve experienced it. But how different our perspective would be if we could see the end results of our failures. Or what if we could see the eternal perspective. What are the results of that failure in God’s eyes? Each time you fail, you have a choice to come back stronger, try harder, work smarter, and learn from your mistakes. You can become bitter, or you can allow failure to shape your character in more positive ways. The only true failure is the one that stops you in your tracks.