Huber, Mary posted on February 03, 2012 10:07
Failure can mean different things to different people and failure can result in a variety of different outcomes depending on the situation. Perhaps our society is becoming too afraid of failure, to the point where failure is seen as something that must be avoided at any cost. There is no shortage of that belief in the lives of many of our children. Adults going above and beyond to make sure that their children do not experience failure. Perhaps we need to evaluate if that is realistic or even healthy.
There are many figures in the Bible that experienced failure at one time or another, yet those failures did not keep them from serving God effectively. The long list would include the likes of Abraham, Moses, Elijah, David, and Peter. They all failed at some point, and often in significant ways. Yet each of them not only recovered from their failure, but they used it as a tool of growth—they learned from their failure, confessed it to God, and were often able to be used in even mightier ways.
Romans 8:35 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?”
37 “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”
In most cases none of us “wants” to fail, and certainly as teachers and parents we don’t want our children to strive for that as a goal. In reality, we know that everyone will have to deal with it in his or her lives. Students need to understand that failing will be a part of their lives as an adult as well as a child. They will learn resiliency, hard work, and humility through their mistakes. It is important that children learn how to move forward in the face of a failure.
Teachers and parents have plenty of opportunities to demonstrate to our children how to deal with failure. Teachers often try new strategies and lessons in their classroom. It may come as a shock to you, but sometimes those ideas fail. Although there is plenty of defeat in the lives of Christians, praise God the Almighty that He has provided for us the ultimate victory – over sin, death, and the devil.
Michael Bender