Are you taking notes?
I am so excited, something is brewing…but I cannot aptly describe it; I know without a shadow of a doubt that something is about to happen.
I am so pumped about my future and what God is doing and as I look ahead, I cannot help but reminisce
for we cannot truly appreciate how far we have come until we look back.
Today I had a flashback to a season of my life where I was overlooked, underrated, and written off.
I was that girl with nothing going on for her, I could walk into a room and not be noticed, not because I wasn’t beautiful, attractive or good looking but because when people looked at me in that season, all they could see was what had happened to me.
What had happened to me?
I had failed and repeated a year in university, I was the assistant class rep that year and I had to be replaced. Oh! the disgrace and shame I felt, every bit of confidence I had in myself was knocked down.
I still remember the silence and hushed tones when some of my previous course mates saw me months after results were published.
I had gone from this girl who was at the forefront, to somebody who had lost her voice.
I barely had friends, people hardly spoke to me, looking back now; I think it was more the way my shoulders drooped and my head hanged, that pushed people away, that and the fact that failure had no friends as compared to success.I wore the cloak of defeat and shame for a very long time, So I guess if people wanted to be friends I might not have noticed.
I remember when someone told me he pitied me and was worried about my future because my grades were not improving. He kept asking me, what is your problem Stella.
Problem? I left there feeling like there was something really wrong with me,
What had I done wrong, who had I offended, why was I failing repeatedly?
Would I ever amount to anything?
Little did I know God was making me, pruning, teaching and equipping me for the various
Seasons to come. The turning point was when I realised that failure had a lot to teach me and the sooner I wiped my tears, humbled myself and started taking notes, the quicker my elevation would come..and wow, the lessons learnt have transformed my outlook on life and I am so grateful for the experience and it how it shaped me into this person I am today.
I learnt not to let failure define me, yes I had failed but that was not who I was. Failure was essential for growth, there were going to be many more failed attempts in the future so I had to learn how to prepare myself for that and learn how to get the most value out of it.
I was coaching a student recently who was struggling with her studies and couldn’t see past all the re-sits she had to take and it was affecting her self esteem,
So I shared my Uni days story with her and she said ‘’no way, you are so intelligent and confident
No one would have ever guessed” and that made me laugh, I could have walked around with a chip on my shoulder you know, but I chose to learn from it.
I am not that girl anymore who is terrified at failure, for I have learnt what it truly is;
an opportunity.
An opportunity to try again, re-launch, look a little closer and reinvent one’s self. To do better and become great.
An opportunity many do not have because they just happened to make the pass mark, so the move up to the next class but they never really learn what true success is.
So today we have so many PASS MARK Individuals, average folks who play safe, doing just enough to get by, writing off themselves and allowing others to do the same to them.
We have the other set of individuals who disregard and slight those who have failed
They try to define them by that event not knowing that it is designed to make them better and greater.
If you, my dear have felt that way, mocked and slighted because you attempted something and it failed.
You started the business but it crumbled, and now you feel knocked down,
You entered a relationship but it failed, and now you feel like a failure
Or perhaps an idea didn’t quite pan out the way you thought it would.
Or a project you started got abandoned
Brace up, roll your sleeves, cut your losses and embrace your failures,
It does not and should not define you,
It is an opportunity. Choose to learn from it and become great as a result of it.
In a short while, the people who laughed at you; wrote you off and looked down on you would take
Coaching lessons from you.
If you are a student and you are struggling and find yourself failing
It might be time to change your learning strategy, look into your itinerary and cut out
excesses or distractions. God has given you a sound mind and you can do all things through Christ
who gives you the strength and ability.
Do not write yourself off and do not let anyone do, even if they do today, tomorrow it wouldn’t matter because you would have become better and you would have the last laugh.
I hope this encourages you to lift your head up today and work confidently
Knowing that everything you would ever go through good or bad would eventually
Work out right for you. God has equipped you with everything you would need to be great and not ‘AVERAGE.
You are valued, you are able, you can win, you are not a FAILURE,
Every dream God has laid in your heart is POSSIBLE,
Every God-given idea is ATTAINABLE, Failure is good, let it be your teacher, get out your books and start taking notes.
You are UNSTOPPABLE.
See you at the top.
God loves you so much.
Philippians 3:13-14 (NIV)
Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
JER 8;4 (GNT)
The Lord told me to say to his people, “When someone falls down, doesn't he get back up? If someone misses the road, doesn't he turn back?
Proverbs 24:16 Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
Good people might fall again and again, but they always get up. It is the wicked who are defeated by their troubles.
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