My Inbox of Daily Inspirations: Daily Heartlight -- February 9, 2008

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February 9, 2008

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=========================== TODAY'S ARTICLE ==========================

Don't Let Failure Be Final, by Mike Barres

You are going to think I'm making this up, but it is a true story. When
my wife was pregnant with our first child, she had quite a bit of
"morning sickness." One morning she was sick and asked if I could make
her pancakes. I don't cook. I reminded her of that. She said that
cooking pancakes was really simple. She told me that she already had
the batter made in the refrigerator. She told me to just turn on the
stove, spray the pan with that cooking spray stuff, and flip the
pancakes with the plastic spatula thing. I agreed to give it a try.

Next thing you know, smoke was filling our little apartment. The smoke
alarm was going off. I turned on the stove vent and opened a window.
She called out from the bedroom, "Is everything ok?" I told her that it
was ok, I had just turned up the heat a little too high.

I brought in the pancakes for her to eat. They were a bit burnt. She
said that she would eat them anyway. After she ate them she asked about
the cheese that I had put in the pancakes. She noticed orange specs in
the pancakes. I told her that I didn't put in any cheese. We thought
about it and realized that I had turned the stove up so high that I had
melted parts of the orange plastic spatula in to the pancakes.

Needless to say, she never asked me to cook again. She is a really good
cook. I choose to let her function in her gifting.

Sometimes we mess up in life and are afraid to try again.

This morning, she had to leave the house early. She told me, "There is
some pancake batter made, if you want to make some pancakes." I said,
"Do you remember what happened the last time I tried to cook pancakes?"
We both had a laugh. Just to give you some perspective, my pancake
burning incident was 28 years ago, and by the way, our daughter turned
out just fine, in spite of the plastic while pregnant diet.

My wife left and I went to the kitchen. I thought, "I can do this." So
I got out the pan and the spray and a plastic spatula. I heated up the
stove and poured out the batter. I'm happy to report that the pancakes
turned out really well, even though I did leave them unattended for a
few minutes while I went and checked my email in another room.

Sometimes we mess up in life and are afraid to try again. It may be a
task, or it may be a job, or relationships. Failure is not final. Learn
from your mistakes and move on.

"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ
Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the
Spirit" (Romans 8:1).

"Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing
I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward
to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the
prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians
3:13-14).

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of
love and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7).

---------
(c) 2008 Mike Barres <mbarres@dnet.net>.

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Daily Heartlight -- February 9, 2008