Bounce BackSýnishorn

“From failure you learn. From success not so much.”

Time to unbury your head from the sand and take a long hard look at what happened.

When my children were younger, they had to first grade their own homework before the teacher did. I always found this weird. They had just completed a piece of work at home and then the next day in school mark it themselves. What I then discovered was after they marked their work, they then had to swap with another child in the class and grade someone else’s. Finally, after my children had self-evaluated and been peer-reviewed, then the teacher would make her assessment.

I remember asking their teacher once to explain this process, and she said that before doing this three-step marking scheme, the children in her class were not learning from their mistakes. They would ignore her assessment and wouldn’t improve the next time.

Also, she changed what it meant to be marked. Instead of pointing out what went wrong, each child had to mark based on WWW (what went well) and NTT (next time try).

This created a class full of confident children, unashamed to receive feedback from peers and eager to improve on their mistakes. By the end of our parent-teacher meeting, I thought this woman was a genius and should run for government!

When did we lose that confidence to share our mistakes and seek feedback from our peers? Who decided that only success should be public and failure private?

Paul in the New Testament is never shy at admitting when he got it wrong. He often points out his past because it is from his experience that he learnt and grew.

The Bible is full of imperfect people who failed but regrouped and went on to complete their God-given purpose. In Hebrews 11 the author lists individuals and their Kingdom-advancing achievements, but they do not list failures.

Jacob lied. Samson was immoral. Noah got drunk. Jonah ran away from God. Sarah laughed in the face of God. Gideon was fearful. David had an affair and commissioned a murder. Moses killed a man. Yet, they were all named as men and women full of faith.

I shared with you my failure, perhaps it is time you share yours with someone. Ask a trusted friend to do the WWW (what went well) and NTT (next time try) exercises with you. Do it yourself. Learn from your experience so like Paul, you, too, can articulate your growth and complete your God-given purpose like the many imperfect people from scripture did.