The freedom to fail is vital if you're going to succeed. If at first you don't succeed, you're about average! The people who are really failures are those who set their standards so low, keep the bar at such a safe level, that they never run the risk of failure. 

So what can you do when you make a mistake? You take your knocks, you learn your lessons and then you move on. That's a healthy way to deal with a problem.  

What we must learn to do is to fail intelligently. As Charles Kettering said, "failing is one of the greatest arts in the world." That makes me smile as I think of how good an artist I must be based on the number and size of my mistakes and failures in life! Kettering gave these suggestions for turning failure into success:

- Honestly face defeat; Never Fake Success (so often seen in today's society)

- Exploit the failure; don't waste it. Learn all you can from it.

- Never use failure as an excuse for not trying again. 

What must be avoided is, as Glenn Van Ekeren puts it, "Don't be an excusiologist?" There is a pattern that tends to develop when analyzing excuses, and it drains the soul, takes up time, and adds nothing to ones growth, maturity, or success.

- The first type of excuse is outright denial-refusing to admit any association, involvement or wrongdoing. Children learn this technique early on and tend to carry it with them into adulthood.

- The second form of refusing responsibility is a simple, "It's not my fault" or "It's because of" excuse. This is a true form of scapegoating. Find someone else to blame. It's because of my supervisor, spouse, great uncle, mother-in-law, or some other innocent bystander.

- Finally, we have the "I did it, but..." approach. "But" is the important word here. Excusiologists resorting to this popular antic admit to wrongdoing but then every circumstance in life becomes fair game to be blamed for the error. 

The simple truth is, people who make excuses a way of life experience little to take credit for and life will continue to seem unfair. The things we continue to excuse will return to haunt us over and over again.Excusiology is a dead-end way of life. 

God recognizes we will make mistakes on our life's journey to reach a state of "right doing". He reminds us as follows: "For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again.. (Prov 24:16)". The issue is when we rely solely on our own abilities and perceived strengths. I can do all things through Christ...so it is He that I seek to draw my strength and courage from to admit my mistake (no excuses), learn (so as not to repeat), and get up and keep trying (to reach success). 

From God's heart through my heart to yours!

Paul Sr