Have you ever desired to change a bad habit and you failed the first, the second, or third time?

Has a situation that challenged you, perhaps emotionally, ever emerged that you didn’t handle well?  Maybe you lost your temper and you shouldn’t have or you should have smiled instead of snarled at someone who irritated you.  Maybe you thought you burned a bridge or messed up an opportunity to show that you have love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness or self-control – the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). Then suddenly, another opportunity presented itself in a way that you couldn’t have orchestrated.  You were excited and eager to prove yourself, but again you failed.  You felt like running away, hiding, or escaping in some way.  Isn’t it interesting that the challenge that prods you most often is the issue or behavior you struggle with more than any other?  Doesn’t it at times seem as though the universe is conspiring to undermine you, destroy you, or at least bring you to your knees?

Well, let’s look at another perspective.  When you were learning to walk and you fell, did your parents grab you and say, “Sit down because you are falling too much and I’m not going to give you another opportunity to walk”?  Quite the contrary.  They dusted you off and encouraged you to try again.  They cheered when you made your first steps.  After you could walk and graduated to another chance to grow, like learning to ride a bike, they were just as supportive when you fell, weren’t they?  Yes!

How much more does your Heavenly Father know how to give you good gifts? (Matthew 7:11). Regard those repeated trials that pester you as opportunities to graduate into becoming strong or skilled in another competency.  The faster you learn the lesson that heartache is trying to teach you, the less likely you are to repeat it.  If God is providing you another opportunity, He isn’t holding your past failures and mistakes against you.  Through Christ, all your sins are forgiven and you are a new person.  Have you forgiven yourself?  If you haven’t, then forgive yourself today.  Pick yourself up and be on the lookout for another chance to progress in one way or the other!

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May we forgive our trespasses,

As He forgives them

And regard those reoccurring tough trials

Simply as what forgiveness encompasses

Another free chance to thrive,

To prosper or to advance

Then finally, we land that win

Which multiplies into a rich archive