It is a well-established, scientific fact that I like Star Wars. I have been pondering some things from this universe, especially from The Last Jedi. While I will not give away very much to those of you who haven't seen it, there is some discussion about the importance of failure as a teacher. I expect that fear of failure is something present in many students' minds as the final exam season approaches. Perhaps some things I say will help to alleviate those fears.
In the most recent general conference, Elder Lynn G. Robbins spoke of failure, and its importance in our spiritual progression. To quote:
“Success,” it has been said, “isn’t the absence of failure, but going from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm.”
This is a very important clarification. Sometimes we can look at other people, who seem to have everything going perfectly in their lives, and think "wow, that person never fails at anything!" But, as Elder Robbins said, this is not a correct understanding of failure. As we try to restructure the way we think about failure, try asking this question of yourself:
"If to err is human nature, how many failures will it take us until our nature is no longer human but divine? "
There are some scriptural examples of people who learned important lessons from failure. For example, Nephi, when trying to retrieve the brass plates from Laban, learned that he could not do it on his own. After trying, and failing twice, to get the plates from Laban, Nephi finally learned the lesson to trust in the Spirit:
"And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do" (1 Nephi 4:6).
In the New Testament we see Peter and his fellow Apostles having to learn from failure multiple times. One particular time that I think was crucial in Peter's personal development happened after the Resurrection of Christ. Peter and six other apostles were out fishing on the sea of Galilee, but caught nothing all night. Then in the morning a someone on the shore called out to them to "Cast the net on the right side of the ship," and they caught so many fish they couldn't pull them all in. With this miracle obviously paralleling the one that happened at the beginning of Christ's ministry, Peter and those with him were reminded again of the power of God. It took them failing at fishing twice before they finally left their nets and became full-time ministers.
There are many other examples of this in the scriptures, including the people of Limhi learning humility from suffering. I had a professor who told the class about his failures in college, and actually attributed his eventual career success to those early failures; it was very insightful.
You may be asking now, how do I maintain enthusiasm between failures? Elder Robbins partially answered this question:
"Repentance is God’s ever-accessible gift that allows and enables us to go from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm."
In the most recent general conference, Elder Lynn G. Robbins spoke of failure, and its importance in our spiritual progression. To quote:
“Success,” it has been said, “isn’t the absence of failure, but going from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm.”
This is a very important clarification. Sometimes we can look at other people, who seem to have everything going perfectly in their lives, and think "wow, that person never fails at anything!" But, as Elder Robbins said, this is not a correct understanding of failure. As we try to restructure the way we think about failure, try asking this question of yourself:
"If to err is human nature, how many failures will it take us until our nature is no longer human but divine? "
There are some scriptural examples of people who learned important lessons from failure. For example, Nephi, when trying to retrieve the brass plates from Laban, learned that he could not do it on his own. After trying, and failing twice, to get the plates from Laban, Nephi finally learned the lesson to trust in the Spirit:
"And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do" (1 Nephi 4:6).
In the New Testament we see Peter and his fellow Apostles having to learn from failure multiple times. One particular time that I think was crucial in Peter's personal development happened after the Resurrection of Christ. Peter and six other apostles were out fishing on the sea of Galilee, but caught nothing all night. Then in the morning a someone on the shore called out to them to "Cast the net on the right side of the ship," and they caught so many fish they couldn't pull them all in. With this miracle obviously paralleling the one that happened at the beginning of Christ's ministry, Peter and those with him were reminded again of the power of God. It took them failing at fishing twice before they finally left their nets and became full-time ministers.
There are many other examples of this in the scriptures, including the people of Limhi learning humility from suffering. I had a professor who told the class about his failures in college, and actually attributed his eventual career success to those early failures; it was very insightful.
You may be asking now, how do I maintain enthusiasm between failures? Elder Robbins partially answered this question:
"Repentance is God’s ever-accessible gift that allows and enables us to go from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm."
If we have a proper understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and the power of His forgiveness, we can find peace, and yes, even enthusiasm, by daily repentance.
However, this by itself does not do it for me. I think an important corollary to this is the talk given by Pres. Nelson back in the October 2016 general conference. I encourage you to read the entire talk. He said, in part:
"My dear brothers and sisters, the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives."
If we focus on the Savior, and trust in His grace, we can experience greater enthusiasm. Isn't Pres. Nelson a wonderful example of enthusiasm?
One more quote from Elder Robbins:
"Our success, then, isn’t going from failure to failure, but growing from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm."
This life is all about changing, becoming better. It is through "the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah" that we are able to repent. Even when life gets stressful, yes, even during finals, we can overcome our fear of failure by knowing that "all things work together for good to them that love God."
Pictures from lds.org
Pictures from lds.org
Wonderful insights! I loved how you brought in President Nelson's talk about joy, and examples of failure from Nephi and Peter. It's powerful to think about how these incredible men, and disciples of Jesus Christ could have failed as often as they did. Yet they persisted in enduring to the end (2 Nephi 31:15-16, 20).
ReplyDeleteAs an interesting side note, the root of enthusiasm is Greek from "enthous" - meaning to be filled, possessed or inspired by God. As we know, repentance is the process of us turning ourselves back to God. It is repentance that allows us to turn from our failures and to be "filled with God" (to have enthusiasm) again. In this context, Elder Robbins' statement that you quoted earlier has a deeper meaning, "Repentance is God’s ever-accessible gift that allows and enables us to go from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm."