How to deal with Failure in a Productive and Encouraging Way, Part 1

"To those who by patient persistence  in well-doing [springing from piety] seek [unseen but sure] glory and honor  and [the eternal blessedness of] immortality, He will give eternal life" Romans 2:7, AMP

It is very important to have a  good method to understanding and dealing with failure. Otherwise, our sinful  nature will cause us to become discouraged, frustrated, and depressed when  we fail at any given task that we set ourselves out to achieve.

Whether it is to overcome sin,  master a character trait, learn a new skill, or accomplish a task, failure  can either empower you to continue learning and growing, or motivate you  to quit and depress you.

The first step in dealing with  failure in an uplifting and empowering way is understanding that failure  is an opportunity to grow and learn. If we do not learn from our mistakes,  only then have we truly failed.

The movie "Meet the Robinsons"  brings this point home in a great way. At one point during the movie the  main Character, a child genius who would grow to become a great leader  and inventor, fails at fixing a little device at the dinner table, in front  of a handful of people. Immediately after his failure, the small crowd  breaks out in cheers to celebrate this "great failure" of his.  People involved in the celebration then explain that failure is part of  the road towards success. They end the encouragement with the phrase "keep  moving forwards," and a food fight. The moral of the story is:

Every failure is an opportunity  to learn.
You get more than one chance  to succeed!
You can always try again!
So,
KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

Once you understand that failures  become opportunities. The next step is to analyze your failure in order  to improve on your results. Stay tuned, because I will share the process  I use to analyze my failures in tomorrow's post!!