MamaArcher's Blog

Having a Failure Kind of Day

There are days when I just feel “off my game.”  Nothing seems to go as I planned.  There are days when I feel like a total failure and wonder if my family might be better off with someone who was better at (insert anything here) than I am.  Then I remind myself, “I am not perfect and I never will be, at least not before the Lord comes!”  This road of sanctification can seem so very long at times.  I want to be there already, who after all doesn’t want to do everything right all the time!  Oh wait, that sounds a bit like impatience, discontentment, and self-reliance!  Shoot, I failed again!

It isn’t that I do not have constant reminders of the things I do right.  I do.  I often have people who tell me.  I have a husband who tells me.  I even have children who tell me.  I see the fruit of my labor in my children.  Yet, I also have constant reminders of my failings.  I have those who seek to tear me down to make themselves feel better about their own shortcomings.  I have the occasions when my children remind me they too are fallen sinners (by attitudes and actions) yet saved by grace the same as I am.  I have the Holy Spirit indwelling me as an ever constant reminder of how and how far I fall short.

The thing is…… who do I listen to?  What do I do with what I hear?

Failings sometimes seem to make us loose our focus.  Do you ever forget that it is the Lord who works and begin to think it is all about you?  Well, I will be honest here.  Sometimes I do.  I begin to think, if I just try harder I will do it right today!  A friend recently said when speaking of being a perfect parent, “When my children are asleep in their beds and I remember how I failed, I plan to be the perfect parent tomorrow, then we wake up.”

If I am focused on the Lord.  I will hear and take heart His correction.  I may even grieve that I have failed so greatly. BUT, I will remember that it is He who works all things together.  The work that the Lord does through me is still HIS work.  I will be ever mindful of His love, grace, mercy, and power to overcome.

If I allow  my focus to be moved away from Him, Satan begins to take advantage of the situation.  He tells me that it is all up to me.  That I am indeed the total failure I think myself to be.  He reminds me of how I was not compassionate, how I lost my temper, and every other thing I seemed to mess up.  Only unlike the Holy Spirit there is no offer of grace, no reminder that I am not alone, and no power to overcome!

God will let us know that we have failed.  We all fall short.  Yet he reminds us and comforts us that we are not on our own.  He is working.  He is sanctifying.  He will overcome.  In Christ we are more than conquerors.  It is the process of sanctification and we need repent, submit, seek his guidance, and move forward.

Satan, however, will turn us to focus on ourselves and try to keep us there wallowing for as long as possible.  We will conclude that we are indeed the total failures we were afraid we really were!

Failing and being a total failure are not the same.  Where is your focus when you fail?  It makes all the difference in the world.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.