Friends Lost and Found

It’s easy to get discouraged, especially when you really really want to accomplish something and for every step forward, you slide back three steps. Maybe it’s a job promotion. You attend the staff meetings, you give great ideas, you put in extra hours, but the promotion goes to your colleague. Maybe it’s losing weight. You do really well for two weeks and then find yourself eating dessert when you and your friends go out for dinner.

Each one of us has goals, aspirations and hopes. If you’re serious about something, then go after it! Don’t get stuck in the failures along the way…never lose your sense of destiny.

Earlier this month we celebrated President’s Day here in the United States. If anyone has a sense of rising above failure, it’s Abraham Lincoln. Check this out…


• 1809 – He was born into poverty in a log cabin, one room 16×18 ft.
• 1816 – His family was evicted from their home; at age 7 he had to work to support them
• 1818 – His mother died
• 1831 – He failed in business
• 1832 – He ran for the state legislature and lost
• 1832 – He lost his job and wanted to go to law school but couldn’t get in
• 1833 – He borrowed money for a business and went bankrupt; spent the next 17 years paying off that debt
• 1835 – He was engaged to be married, but his sweetheart died and his heart was broken
• 1836 – He had a total nervous breakdown and was in bed for the next 6 months
• 1843 – He ran for congress and lost
• 1854 – He ran for the senate and lost
• 1856 – He sought the vice president nomination and got less than 100 votes from his own party
• 1858 – He ran for senate again and lost again

From the looks of things, Lincoln was stuck in failure. His life was filled with setbacks, obstacles, disasters and losses. However, those were the very things that prepared him to become the president of the United States in 1860!

So, don’t be discouraged by failure. In the words of Martin Luther King, “What does not destroy me makes me stronger.”

Listen to your heart…