Day 2114 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.


Proverbs 24:16 NIV

We've been taught to live in fear of failing. We shudder at the idea of messing up and falling short. We sit around and watch all these people around us living their highlight reel lives and think that we should have ourselves a little more together than we are. But the truth is that nobody is perfect and no life is perfect. That's just the way it is.

Perfection is this human ideal that we've created to judge things by. It's this spotless dream that's unattainable. It's basically nothing but a stumbling block that keeps us disappointed and ashamed of ourselves. We have to ditch this idea of never failing because it's going to happen. Every single one of us have made more mistakes than we can remember. But not a single one of those mistakes was ever the end of the story!

Living in fear of failure can lead us to stop trying. It can force us to hide in our comfort zones where we think we have everything under control. That's a fine idea, but what about when something happens that's beyond our control? How are we going to react when we inevitably mess up? If we've gotten used to being totally afraid of falling then it's going to seriously rock us whenever we do. And as I said, it's just one of those things that happens to all of us.

Like it or not mistakes are a part of life. We can either live in fear of them and cover them up as best we can. Or we can use them to make us better. We can learn from them and grow stronger because of it. There's no shame in failing because at least it shows that you're trying. The only shame is found in falling down and staying there because you feel sorry for yourself.

We can live in this fantasy world where we hopefully never mess up and life is just always great. But that's going to set us up for all kinds of rough times when the inevitable happens. So I think it's safe to say that being open, honest, and real with ourselves is the best way to go. Failing and getting right back in the fight will always do so much more for us than messing up and being upset about it.

Stop thinking you have to be perfect. Stop worrying about messing up. Stop being ashamed of your past mistakes. They happened, but they don't need to have the final say. You have the right to get up. You have the power to try again. You just have to decide to do so. Replace this hope of perfection with an unyielding commitment to keep trying and I promise you'll be better for it!

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