I’ve been good at a lot of things. I’ve been bad at a lot of things. Just because something I’m good at didn’t work out the way it usually does, doesn’t mean I failed. And if I do my best, and succeed at something, doesn’t mean I am the best. And if I’m not the best, it doesn’t make me a failure. And if I did fail, it doesn’t make me a failure; I’ve just learned, therefore I’ve gained, therefore I’ve succeeded.

The mindset that God has blessed me with. One gracious to my humanity and the truth that I am only meant to do what I am meant to do. And that I am different from another person, therefore if they are good at something they are supposed to be. And I am not them. 

It is good to focus on my own gifts, because they are mine. If I were supposed to be another way, and with different gifts, God would have made me that way.

No, not everything I’ve done is what I was supposed to do. But subtracting the things that I’ve done in search of “purpose”, there are only a few things I’m good at, and one thing I love. 

And there is One that I love, that through the thing I love, I may share Him wholly, as this gift of His belongs to Him. 

What things in your life come with you, that you did not need to add to yourself? 

For me, it is what I can do whether I have tools or not. Because surely I love to write, but before I write, it is the thing I have to say that is the gift. 

Therefore, I may write, I may draw, I may sing, I may dance, etc… all things that come with me, so that I may be like the tree. 

Standing with no tools, yet with all it has grown with, praises God perfectly. 

All my failures have led me here, and I’ve grown quite a bit. For if I did not fall, He wouldn’t need to lift me up. If I was not weak, He would have no need to be my strength. And surely there is nothing I can do, as I have spoken before, “I lay in rags dirty and wilted”, but He holds me in His hands, being all that I need. For if He were to let me go, surely I would die. But because He saved me, surely I will live forever and never leave His hands. 

I do not exaggerate when I say, I can do nothing. What explains a person doing something they were never taught to do, other than God being gracious and blessing them with His strength and will to do that which is good and pleasing to Him.

I failed.

He picks me up.

We succeed.