A Fool

I love to study successful people. It is fascinating to follow and read about their “road” to success. Some of the traits they all display:

extremely hard work (well over 40 hours a week),
not “clock watchers,”
their work/dream is a passion and that passion drives them,
teachable,
avid readers,
they have failed and stumbled on the road to success.

Yes, successful people fail but there is a huge difference between when successful people fail and when others, who are attempting to succeed, never seem to arrive–continual failure.

What is different about a successful person’s failure? They are more than willing to SEE their mistakes, take responsibility for them and CHANGE which enables them to take the exit off of failure freeway! People who continually fail, and just don’t seem to ever turn that corner, make excuses. They never think the “failure” is their fault. It is always someone else, not them!

The Bible has a verse for this found in Proverbs 26:11-12, “As a dog returns to his vomit, so fools repeat their folly. Do you see a person wise in their own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for them.” Wow! do these verses teach us so much. WE all want to be WISE IN OUR OWN EYES…me included! But a turning point for success in anyone’s life is to SEEK WISE counsel from others….to come to the end of yourself and realize that others can help. I call it being “teachable” and realizing I/you/we don’t know it all!

Several years ago I discovered a truth that applied to me. It goes like this, “If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten!”

I was sick of getting the same result; SICK OF IT.

It was a continued failure in my life.

I prayed and prayed and I knew the answers for all of life were found in God’s word. Sure enough, as I searched God’s word for “His word” for me, the above verses leaped off the page at me. I was acting like a “fool.” It was an AHA! MOMENT for me. Right then and there I decided to stop returning to the “vomit!”

In order to do this I decided I needed to turn to WISDOM outside of myself. I had been “wise in my own eyes” and I needed someone else’s EYES and WISDOM. I had to admit…what I had been doing wasn’t working.

My usual responses to my failure, which is pretty common for most people, was to blow up, cover up, speed up, back up or give up. After begging God and seeking His face, not wanting to give up, I came to realize the solution to the “quicksand” was to WAKE UP and find the EXIT.

Every failure we experience in life is a fork in the road. It’s an opportunity to take the right actions, learn from our mistakes and DO DIFFERENT:) I realized, “it is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of our responsibilities.”

Point of post: PUT DOWN YOUR PRIDE. If you are failing in an area in life….and it is repetitive…YOU NEED HELP. If you are lacking the success you are looking for:

1) Go to God and ask HIM to show you…..then
2) Go to His word and read it….then
3) Ask Him to help you. BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF…take that HARD LOOK.
4) Ask Him to direct you to WISE COUNSEL–someone who has DEMONSTRATED THAT THEY ARE WISE. Someone who has had MORE SUCCESS than you in that area you are failing in. Do not go to someone in your same shoes or worse.
5) Take full responsibility FOR where you are and KNOW that It is up to you to CHANGE. NOTHING CHANGES UNTIL YOU DO!

Last, know this–With God all things are possible! It’s not too late to exit off of failure freeway!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • I love your devotionals…………you don’t pull any punches……you say what you want or what God wants….you make sure we get the point…….Than you!
    Love and Prayers, Barbara