This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:17

During the Super Bowl on Sunday, my husband had us all play a betting game where we claimed numbered squares on a grid. At the end of each quarter, the person whose square came closest to the score at that time, won a treat. That inspired my son, Mason, to want to bet money on the entire outcome of the game. When his brother, Zack, declined, my husband took him up on it.

Along with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, we all ended up winning something, either treat or money, except for Zack. He lamented, “I never win! If I had bet on the Buccaneers, they would have lost because that’s how it works with me. I always lose.”

It was all in fun, but it got me thinking.

Zack was letting past losses define who he is now. He’s labeled himself unable to win, and lives accordingly. I don’t intend on encouraging my kids to gamble on sports and horses, but I do want them to have enough self-confidence to take a gamble on themselves.

God didn’t create us to play small, or define ourselves by our past mistakes. That’s why Jesus died on the cross for us: to free us from the past, and give us a second chance.

There are a multitude of successful people who have innumerable failures in their past. But rather than letting their failures define them, they picked themselves up and tried again. They believed in themselves enough to see the failure, not as another brick in a wall preventing them from moving forward, but as a brick to be used for a beautiful walkway leading to wherever they wanted to go.

We define everything by how we look at it, ourselves included. It’s time to swap out our eyes for God’s so we can see ourselves as He does: mistake-makers and sinners with so much God-given potential, He’d bet on us every single time.

Questions for Reflection:

• Do I use my mistakes and failures to build a wall, or a walkway?
• Do I believe God bets on me as a winner, no matter what?

They believed in themselves enough to see the failure, not as another brick in a wall preventing them from moving forward, but as a brick to be used for a beautiful walkway leading to wherever they wanted to go.

Tweet