What’s that one dream you’re shelving because you’re afraid it’s too big, too expensive, or too out there?   What’s the phone call that’s eating away at you to make, but you’re so scared that the voice on the other end may not want to reconcile?   What’s the really hard truth you need to say out loud to yourself to move forward but you can’t because forward will for sure equal a failure?     No one likes it, of course, but I hate failure – despise it. Always have. Because the flaw in my thinking since childhood has been that a failed project, a failed plan, a failed relationship means a failed me. A flawed me. A less than me. In the eyes of the world, failure chips away at the value of who I am. DON’T TELL YOURSELF THESE LIES FOR 30 YEARS LIKE I DID!!!     A few things I’ve learned:

• A failed project, plan, etc. means you still have something pivotal to learn; learn it. That’s the fruit.
• Failed communication or conflict in a *safe* relationship can create more trust and safety when it’s handled with grace and humility. That’s the fruit.
• Failure to meet a goal or keep a resolution doesn’t mean you can’t do it; it means you have more muscles to build on your way toward it. Build them. That’s the fruit.
• A failure in obedience to God isn’t a red mark on your spiritual record; it’s a crack in your self-righteous armor that allows his soul-saving love to rush in all over again. That’s the fruit.

  Your failures do not define who you are, but they can refine and enrich who you are if you let them.   For more on this topic, head to: https://www.mattiejackson.net/in-joy-life