Day Sixty-One

FAILURE IS INEVITABLE

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.

—1 JOHN 3:1 ESV

If you think I’m funny, (1) thanks and (2) thank my dad. Dad is a lot of things, including very, very funny. We talk on the phone a lot, and we often share jokes back and forth. For example, if I tell my friends a story at dinner and they laugh a lot, I will almost always call my dad the next day and tell him the story, including describing the reaction from the others at the table. (And probably what we ate too. We are a family of foodies.)

Often, as we are hanging up, my dad will say, “Who loves ya?”—and then, before I even have time to answer, he says, “Dada. Dada.”

Now, mind you, none of us have called him “Dada” in approximately twenty years, but it still works.

Why do I like that so much?

I think it’s really nice when other people remind you that you are loved. I walk through every day, winning or losing, with that truth in mind.

It makes me brave.

When you know who loves you, you know your safe places. You know where you can rest. You know where you can go when you fail. (I’m sorry if I’m the first to tell you this, but brave or not, you are going to fail.)

Failing doesn’t make you a failure. Trying something new makes you brave.

It’s when we let it define us that things go wrong.

Brave people don’t let failure define them; they let failure teach them.

Failing doesn’t make you a failure. Trying something new makes you brave.

Brave people know that because they are loved by their heavenly Father, they can fail and fail and fail again, and nothing between them and their Father will change. Literally. Nothing.

Brave people have courage because they know God loves them no matter what.

BE BRAVE: I keep a dry-erase marker in my bathroom so I can write notes on my mirror. Grab one for yourself, and write on your mirror, “I am deeply loved by God.” Leave it there for one week and see how it impacts your heart.