I love to cook and bake, which isn’t always a good thing. Since I started grinding my own wheat a little over a year ago, I’ve baked more bread than I probably have my entire life and while that’s good…it isn’t always the best thing for the waistline .
I love to look for new recipes, especially on the Internet, that have rave reviews from other cooks. I take time to read their thoughts on whether the recipe should be made just as written, or whether they think it is better with their own personal “tweaking”. I always laugh though when a reviewer says they just loved the recipe…but then go on to list change after change they made to it. In other words, they didn’t make the original recipe, they made up their own recipe!
It never ceases to surprise me though, when I make one of these tried and true concoctions, and we hate it. Sometimes hundreds of other cooks say that this combination of ingredients is the best thing since sliced bread, and we can hardly swallow it. I have to chuckle when my husband always says the same line when he doesn’t like my new dish: “You don’t ever have to make this again.” That’s my cue that this particular recipe needs to be destroyed
Does this failure stop me from trying new recipes? Absolutely not. Do I give up and tell myself that I guess I wasn’t meant to be a cook and I should resort to just serving TV dinners? Of course not (especially since my husband hates them!). Just because this new dish or bread wasn’t a success, doesn’t mean my next attempt won’t be a raving success.
Just like I wouldn’t give up cooking because of a failed attempt, I shouldn’t give up easily in other areas of my life when I fall short. Unfortunately, I see it happening too often in the lives of those with whom I come in contact. They try for a new job and don’t get it, and they feel like a failure and give up. They discipline their child and the end result is not what they were expecting, so they throw up their hands and let their son or daughter do whatever he or she wants. They step out of their comfort zone to attempt something new for Christ and their actions are not met with rave reviews, so they resort to just being a “pew warmer”.
I’m afraid our society puts a lot of pressure on people to make sure they never fail at anything. Even young kids are all given a medal in many sports, because they don’t think kids should experience any loss. But we all have times of failure or loss and we need to learn how to handle those times.
None of us like to fail at anything. But our failures shouldn’t define us as a person. We need to remember that it isn’t the failure that will destroy us but our attitude towards the failure. I read this quote from Chuck Swindoll, “We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.”
There is so much truth in these words. Our attitude is key when we come up against a failure or life throws us a curveball. Will we beat ourselves up or will we stand back up, dust ourselves off and resolve to try again? Remember that Matthew 19:26 tells us, “Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Do you believe that today? If so…make sure your focus stays on Him as you endeavor new and challenging opportunities that will help you grow to look more like Christ. You just never know when one of these ventures will turn out to be a raving success!
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