From the archives:
What designates a failure or success in your mind? My husband and I owned an auto repair shop for three and a half years. During that time we accumulated over 1,000 happy and two unhappy customers. We made several financial mistakes during the height of the recession. We bought high-quality equipment thinking we would have more time before having to replace them and they were more efficient, but they were also more than we could afford.
We tried to help people out, times were tough, money was scarce, and we were too compassionate. We helped a number of people through payment plans. However well-intentioned they may have been, many chose to do other things with their money–we had $15,000 on the street in unpaid bills and I also had to choose who not to pay. We ended up losing the business and our home but took with us a huge debt that we couldn’t pay. Some look at that and say we failed. There were times we felt like we had failed as well.
But, there are always two sides–I see other things. Many customers became good friends who felt they could trust us to be fair. Friends who thanked us and prayed for us both personally and for our business. We supported various community activities, bought a food box each month to bless a needy client, partnered with Goodwill, and many times had the opportunity to praise God or pray for someone.
The end was very hard for us; neither of us wanted to give up, especially my husband. However, he wasn’t the one answering the phone to creditors while customers sat in hearing range. He wasn’t the one trying to manage a bank account that wasn’t adding up. For me, it was time to surrender. I believe God wanted us there but he didn’t say “forever.” “For everything there is a season…a time to plant and a time to uproot…a time to tear down and a time to build.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8) We did a lot of good in our mission field. In my eyes, it was a success. What apparent failure has God changed your perspective on?
Bringing up my grandson. I am praying how to do this. He is handful. He listens to my son and sometimes to me.
I’m right there with you 💜
I worked but God had me to not work. I was taken care of my grandson.
Oh, believe me, Sister Suzie, that taking care of your grandson, although not a paid position is definitely still working. You are being used of God in a life-changing way for your young man.
My issue has been fear of failure, I would have ideas and dreams for things but never go after them. I would support (often financially) everyone else’s dreams but not my own. An issue with that was that the people I invested in didn’t really have the heart to do what they said. So now, I pray and look for fruit to invest in people I believe in. That they have fruit of living for Gods will and have a good work ethic (even if they have failed in the past). I also have changed my perspective of myself. To be confident in things that God has shown me and GO FOR IT with boldness! That I too am worthy of investing in myself. The other thing that has really changed, probably the biggest thing is realizing that everything I have or don’t have belongs to God. So even if I do invest incorrectly or make mistakes personally…they/I are accountable to God for it which takes the pressure off me. I will do my best to be in Gods will and do what He shows me and trust that He will work all things for my good. Even if I don’t know what that good looks like right now. I want to do Gods will in everything I do from now on, even when it is scary, uncertain and at times unclear. My perspective change is to TRUST GOD always and with everything.
“To be confident in things that God has shown me and GO FOR IT with boldness! That I too am worthy of investing in myself. ” YES! Father is looking for bold confidence in our abilities in and through Him. He’s been speaking to me ever so gently for years about writing a book, (or 7, as a friend heard Him say years ago) but I have dragged my feet. Maybe the time wasn’t right or maybe it was just me and a lack of confidence in my ability. Thank you Rachel for being the final “push” to stand up in my heart, believe that what He asks IS not only possible but what I should be doing, and to initiate the first steps toward the goal He has placed in me. I love you.
I also think, if God put it on your heart to start a business and he used it to bless others for His Kingdom….you should never give up on that dream. You might have to do it different the next time around. Use what you learned in the last season to help you in the next. You and your husband should start dreaming again about what you should do. Don’t give up, ever!