What Do You Do With Yesterday's Failure?

Embrace failure. Never embrace the lie that you are a failure.  Failures happen.  They are a natural part of life when we are making efforts to do anything.  When we are passive and doing nothing, we don’t fail.  But if we try, if we attempt to change or grow, then we will naturally sometimes fail.

Do failures paralyze or slow you down?  Does your mind jump to the false conclusion that if you fail, you are a failure?  Mine has at times.  It’s one of the enemy’s favorite tricks and a common mental distortion. 

This past week I had failures and I had successes in different areas of my life.  Neither one defines who I am.  Who I am is already established- I am a daughter of the King of Kings, beloved by my Father God, cherished, valued, worthy of love and kindness and an honored one.  Isaiah 43:4 says “…you are precious to me.  You are honored and I love you.” That is who I am!  That is who you are! 

So what do we do when we fail to meet our goals or live up to our own high ideals?  Maybe a personal example from my week can help.
  
This past week one of my unsaved neighbors came to my house and brought me some tomatoes from her garden.  She was sick.  Looking back, I know God brought her to my door.  I wish I would have prayed for her, shared my testimony of healing with her, and taken notice of that opportunity to show God’s love to her and be a witness.  I didn’t.  I pray for her every day (she is on my Lost List), but I choked and failed to do what I wanted to do and what God gave me opportunity to do. 

It is important to acknowledge that we fail as well as succeed in this journey toward living fruitful and obedient lives.  Does that make me a hypocrite or a failure?  The enemy would love me to believe that!  No way!  I’m not a failure.  I’m a human being who sometimes fails and sometimes succeeds in my pursuit of a fruitful and obedient lifestyle as a Jesus follower.  I will not let failures keep me from trying again, or casting vision for others to be bold witnesses of His love.  Instead I will reject condemnation and lies and remember who I am once again.  

I’ll let today be a new day, let this week be a new week and I’ll celebrate and embrace failures as part of the process of growth.  Next time, by God’s grace, I’ll do better.  My Papa God is with me, empowering me, loving me, working through me, changing me, molding me.  As I abide in His love, I will bear much fruit.  Yesterday’s failure doesn’t determine today’s action.  What I believe about who I am does. I'm chosen by God to bear fruit (John 15:16). Today is a new day!

A Key to Multiplication: Train don't Teach

I was speaking in a training program the other day and began to realize how big of a shift God has been bringing in me over the past few years. There has been a pretty dramatic change in what I do when I am invited into a classroom full of people wanting to learn and grow.  I'm still speaking about the same topics, but my mindset has changed a great deal!

The change can easily be defined as a shift from being a Teacher to becoming a Trainer.  What is the difference?

In many ways teaching is easier and more satisfying to my ego.  When I teach, I mostly give information and pass on knowledge.  Its quite easy to feel good about myself when I teach.  If I make a good presentation and everyone likes it, response well, gets excited, well...then it was a success.  I like teaching and there is certainly a place for it.  It is a wonderful spiritual gift that God uses me in.

But, when I began to really look at fruitfulness and the results I was seeing related to my goal of making disciples who make disciples...I saw I needed to change.

I need to be willing to be less of a teacher and more of a trainer.  Trainers are practitioners- they do what they are training people to do.  Trainers demonstrate and model both in the classroom and in the field.  Trainers are learners themselves, not experts, though they are probably some steps ahead of the trainees.  Trainers follow up and check on how things get applied after the classroom period is over.  Trainers work not only on knowledge being passed on, but also on skills. Trainers are careful to keep their training style simple enough that everyone they train can pass on the same material to others immediately. Success for a trainer is when the student/trainee is able to do what they taught and train others to do the same.

When I look at Jesus, I see him mostly training his disciples.  There are those times when he also taught them and passed on knowledge.  But most of the time he was modelling in the field with them, then giving them assignments, then getting a report and training again.  

I believe we will see many more disciples who make disciples result from our "training programs" and seminars if we stop teaching so much and train more.

Do you tend to be more of a trainer or a teacher?