Failure No More!

By Liz Cowen Furman –

Every year when the New Year rolls around and everyone is talking about New Year’s resolutions, I have felt compelled to join in. Over the years, I’ve had several. One year I was going to get in shape and lose a bunch of baby weight (my kids are all in their teens or 20s now so this was a day or two ago). I started out great; eating less, running or walking more. However, as the weeks went by and melted into months so did my resolve. Failure.

Another year I was going to stop eating sugar (oh yeah, right.) That only lasted until February with the next eat sugar until you drop holiday. Failure.

Yet another New Year found me determined to get organized. I am a piler; it is the plight of being a teacher I think. Do you know what a piler is? A person who has a pile for this project and a pile for that job is a piler. Mine are usually organized; at least I know where everything is. My husband would beg to differ however. Just as all the other resolutions failed so did this one.

After so many failures, in order to avoid being a failure, I quit making resolutions. Then a couple of years ago, our pastor suggested instead of all those other resolutions, as good as they might be, that we focus on our relationship with the Savior. Get a lined journal, he encouraged. Each morning open your Bible and start reading, looking for a nugget for you that day. Start in the Psalms. When you read something that really speaks to you, copy the verse and cite into your journal and write what you are thinking about or write a prayer asking God to help you get it or apply it or whatever fits.

So I did. An amazing thing happened. My quiet time and time spent in the Bible transformed from something I did mostly out of duty to something I look forward to every day. I can’t wait to crack open the Word and dive in every morning. Verses I’ve read a million times have come alive for me on a whole different level. (Proof that the Bible is a living document, like scripture claims). If I have to miss a day or two, (life happens sometimes); I just pick it back up and go forward. No guilt and no trying to make up the lost days, just going forward. It works! Instead of fulfilling a resolution or goal I grew in my relationship with my best friend Jesus. I guess you could say that instead of being a follower of Jesus I became a friend of His. Big difference.

If you are tired of all those failed resolutions like I was, try this one for 2013. See if you are as encouraged as I. Scripture promises that His Word never comes back void. I’m thinking this might be the only New Year’s Resolution I will ever make.

Do You Have a Growth Commitment?

By Peter Lundell –

I often ask people how long their New Year’s resolutions last. Typically they seem to crash and burn sometime by the end of January. So life goes on as it did before.

Positive change must be addressed every day. It happens not by achievement but by habit.

I encourage people to chuck resolutions in favor of what I call “growth commitments” that I establish for each year. I’ve done annual growth commitments since 1986 that have led to major growth and changes in my life, which also makes my wife happy.

Think primarily in terms of personal character growth, not just paying off a credit card or losing weight. Those are fine, but if you relate them to deeper issues of character growth, you’ll go much deeper with the whole commitment and attain more overall results than you would otherwise. Go ahead and have other goals. But if you keep the growth commitment to one main thing, simply expressed, you will do well.

Two keys make it work: 1—Keep it simple and short, then write it on a on a small piece of paper (or PDA), and put it where you’ll see it daily, like on a mirror, in a wallet, as a bookmark, or whatever works for you. 2—Pray it, incorporate it into time you (hopefully) spend with God each day. And do it all year long. When you write it down and keep it where you’ll always see it, you enable yourself to consistently pray it.

Doing this accomplishes two other things: You bring God’s response into it, and you reorient your own thinking around the commitment. Change your thinking and you’ll change your behavior—especially if you seek God’s blessing each day.

What would your 2013 growth commitment be?

“Lord, my life is in Your hands. In this coming year mold me into your image and grow me beyond who I am now….”

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 29:11-13, NIV).

Truest Worship

By Carin LeRoy –

Recently my neighbor knew a family who had a fire in their house, and she asked if my husband had a spare pair of shoes she could take to the husband. We remembered a pair of casual nice leather shoes that didn’t fit my husband that were never used. They were sitting in the closet gathering dust, so I gave her the pair. My neighbor was grateful, and I felt good they were going to someone in need. As I thought about those shoes, I began to think that giving those was not a sacrifice because we couldn’t use them anyway.

How much do we sacrifice for others? As Christians, we go to church most Sundays, give our tithe, attend small group, maybe give a gift to a missionary and fill our lives with good and honorable things. But these things are not sacrifice. Mothers forgo a career to raise their children; fathers give up comfort and peace to work hard and support their family; and parents forfeit their desires for their children’s needs. These are ways we sacrifice for family.

When we are self-absorbed, we focus on our own needs and desires and are not willing to give for the sake of others. Many marriages fall apart because one or both partners refuse to compromise or meet the needs of the other. Sacrifice means we are willing to deny ourselves in order to bless others or to bless God. We relinquish for the benefit of another.

I think of a missionary pilot and friend who flew a small single-engine plane for years helping others. He flew into isolated areas taking in supplies and food, carrying out those needing medical care and making sure that he was meeting the needs of those in his area. His work cost him his life one day as his plane crashed into the side of a mountain after encountering bad weather. He sacrificed for others.

Do we live a life of sacrifice? Or are we self-absorbed? Christ is our ultimate example. In Scripture we read in Philippians that “Christ made himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant.” Why? Because He knew that living in obedience to God’s will was worth the sacrifice of his own life—even death on a cross. Out of His great love, Christ left all the glories of heaven and His deserved place beside His father to sacrifice His life for us.

As we move into this new year, let’s remember that a life of obedience and a willingness to sacrifice is the truest form of worship.

PRAYER: Lord, thank You for Your great sacrifice and willingness to come to earth and die for my sins. Keep me mindful that a life of true worship stems from a life of obedience and sacrifice.

“You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, who though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature. He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death– even death on a cross! As a result God exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow– in heaven and on earth and under the earth – and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:6-11 NET).

God’s Workout Plan

By Cheri Cowell –

Most of us have some form of health goals for the New Year. It seems that every other commercial on television is about losing weight or getting healthy. I’m told that gym memberships increase by over 60% the first six weeks of the year, but decline to their normal numbers after that. Just this week I heard a fitness expert say we need to spend at least three hours each week on some form of physical exercise, and double that if we want to lose weight. He said that for most people, simply walking more is a good place to start in order to create an exercise habit that will stay with us throughout our lives.

How many of us have similar goals for our spiritual exercise? The goal of living longer, being healthier, and possibly looking better this time next year propels us towards making these lifestyle changes. But what image or goal is going to drive us to make the commitments needed for our spiritual exercise?

Each of us has the job of discovering how we can labor and strive for the kingdom of God. Some of us will labor this year by working on a particular area of weakness, some by surrendering an area of life to God, and still others by seeking more of God’s face and less of His hand.

And what will we get when we do this? We will experience the hope of the Living God, who will give us the desires of our hearts. Strive and labor on God’s workout equipment and He will provide the “body” in Christ you are looking for.

PRAYER: God, thank You for never allowing my work to go unnoticed or unheralded. Help me exercise more consistently on Your workout equipment so I may be all You need me to be in the body of Christ.

“But reject those myths fit only for the godless and gullible, and train yourself for godliness. For “physical exercise has some value, but godliness is valuable in every way. It holds promise for the present life and for the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:7-8 NET).

Hear Me . . . Whimper

By Jane Thornton –

Though I’m not much of a feminist, Helen Reddy’s lyrics, “I am strong. I am invincible. I am woman. Hear me roar,” inspire me to belt them out. I do lay claim to strength of character—obviously not of muscle—whether related to my sex or not, whether evident to others or not, whether justified or not.

My strength has rarely been tested with any severity, but I have presumed to believe I would endure bravely all the trials which the heroines of my beloved novels conquer. Sometimes I have even sunk to the depths of imagining myself graciously suffering through bankruptcy or cancer or widowhood. I tend to ignore prior evidence of the times I’ve sniveled my way through a common cold.

With little credit to myself, although I seem to be taking it, I have enjoyed a fairly successful life. My family relationships are close and encouraging. In both high school and college, I excelled in academics. Blessed with a brain whose left side dominated, I didn’t struggle overmuch with bookwork. My dating life could be judged as weak since it was almost nonexistent. However, that lack meant I didn’t deal with traumatic breakups, and I ended up with the best husband ever, so that area tallies on the win side, too.

Parenthood brought a small hiccup in my confident stride. Still, we didn’t face a lot of ordeals common to many, so we plowed forward. Perhaps I am glossing over a few struggles, but with our kids about grown, I’m proud to plop them in with my successes.

I started teaching as a four-year-old when my sister was a trapped audience. I have taught Sunday School to all ages over many years. I taught writing to homeschoolers. I quit a budding career as an accountant because I felt called to the classroom.

Then I became a public school teacher.

Never have I worked so hard and felt like such a failure. When the student fails, the teacher fails. Progress reports just came out, and my failure rate for seniors bottomed out at sixty percent. That figure is not a typo. Sixty. I want to cry. I have cried. I’m sure I’ll cry some more.

Of course, my defensive reaction blames the kids. They don’t do their work. True. They don’t try. True. They don’t care. True. Those students who do work, try, and care are not failing. However, I have to deal with reality. My job isn’t merely to teach, but to inspire effort and motivation in these teenagers too.

I work long hours, try everything I know, and care immensely—yet statistics attest to my failure. I want to scream at my students, at administrators, and at God, “What am I supposed to do?”

I hope you’re not reading this article expecting a pat answer. I don’t have one. But this semester, God’s words keep reverberating through my spirit. “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (II Corinthians 12:9 NIV).

Bring on the power, Lord. I’ve got the weakness.

Last year, when failure rates were high, I had a heart-to-heart with my students, asking what I could do to motivate them. I teared up in front of them and left the room to compose myself, in spite of my acclaimed strength. The next day, they delivered a poster-sized apology, which they all had signed. So, maybe I’m teaching them tender hearts instead of English?

Comment prompt: Where has God used your weakness to show His power?

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