If At First You Don't Succeed...

When I was at school, I used to hate making mistakes in my exercise books: if I spelt something incorrectly or got the wrong answers, I used to cross it out really well, so that nothing could be seen.

 

I didn't want anyone else - or even myself - to see my mistakes.

 

And sometimes I do the same in life - in my mind, I scribble out the things that I don't want to see, the mistakes that I'm embarrassed about, or ashamed of.

 

But I was really challenged this week when I was marking some exercise books and found one student had labelled her work "Try 1" and then, when that hadn't gone quite as she had hoped, she had simply written underneath "Try 2" and had rewritten her ideas and improved them. 

 

In one case, there was even a "Try 3".

 

She hadn't minded me, or anyone else, seeing her mistakes.  She hadn't tried to hide them, or to cross them out.  She was happy for me to see that she had had a go and had kept working to improve her writing. 

 

She was happy to try again.

 

We've all heard the phrase If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again.  But how many of us actually like people seeing us not succeeding, or trying again and again?  How many of us are brave enough and secure enough in ourselves to let people see "Try 1", "Try 2", "Try 3" etc.?

 

Many of us, when we know we have 'failed' or have fallen short of our own expectations, want to hide. 

"I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

 

[Genesis 3:10 NIV]

 

When we feel embarrassed or ashamed of our failings, we hide.  But we don't need to hide.  We don't need to fear.  If we trust in God and His love for us, our fear will we wiped away.

 

"There is no room in love for fear.  Well-formed love banishes fear.  Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love."
 

[1 John 4:18 MSG] 
 

We no longer need to fear or to hide.  Instead, we can let people see our efforts and our failures and our successes.  We can show people our "Try 1" and our "Try 2" and our "Try 3" and so on, because we are secure in ourselves and in our God's love.