Mrs. Auvergne Corneal, my high school principal used to have many little words of wisdom that I have never forgotten down through these many years. For instance she cured my gum chewing in class with: “A gum chewing child and a cud chewing cow, there is a difference I’ll allow, oh yes, I have it now, it is the intelligent expression on the face of the cow.”
She also said in order to accomplish things we needed to have “Stick to it-ivness.” Instead of quitting and running away when the going gets rough, crank your will power up to the sticking point and announce “I don’t have my running shoes on.” You can’t fail if you don’t quit. You are never a failure unless you quit and sit down beside it. It doesn’t matter that you get knocked down seven times if you get up eight times. Yet, the fear of failure is second only to the fear of death in its power to torment the minds of people. Actually failure is an attitude not an outcome.
A well known example of the right attitude was Thomas Edison. He tried 700 times to invent the light bulb. A reporter asked him “How did it feel to fail 700 times?” Mr. Edison answered, “I have not failed even once. I have only discovered 700 things that don’t work.” Shortly thereafter he found the thing that did work, and billions of people now enjoy the benefits of electric lights. Edison didn’t have an attitude of failure, and his outcome was success.
If you are plagued with the fear of failure, go to the scriptures. “God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind.” (2 Tim. 1:7) “Perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18) put your faith in God and His word. You have nothing to fear, not even failure. STICK TO IT!