Failure...

I read a devotion this morning that stopped me in my tracks. It talked about this graduation ceremony and how the speaker was a very successful. Everyone expected his speech to be on how to achieve success and go out and conquer the world...it was quite different. His hope for this graduating class was that they go out and fail. He went on to say he hoped they would fail at something that was extremely important to them. Early in his life he had one failure after another - he concluded by saying things didn't change until he learned to see failure as an effective teacher. I immediately thought about my life...I am an extreme "go getter" and I hate to fail...but my life is so full of times I have failed that I stopped counting. I remember 8 years ago, I tried to start my business and it just flopped. Again when I decided to go back to college and finish my photography program. Halfway through we ended up having to move and again, another failure. I thought about how many trials and failures my husband and I have been through in the past 3-4 years. All of these were enough to make anyone want to give up. It wasn't until I really gave everything over to God, stopped trying to make it all happen, be still and hear what He was trying to teach me. I praise God I did fail all those times. I praise God that I was knocked down enough times that I stopped to see what he was trying to teach me. If not, I would still be chasing my tail. My failures have made me successful. It is not anything I have done on my own, but what God has given me to work with. Everything in my life, He has given me...it is an amazing view. More beautiful than anything I could have ever done on MY own.

I want to leave you with some personal pictures of my kids this week. My son is so skinny that his pants constantly fall down (have a laugh when you see these pics - my daughter and I did!!!). My son keeps me crazy 24/7 and my beautiful daughter is growing up - they are my true gifts from God.