Try, Try Again

Galations 6:9 – “And let us not grow weary of doing good,

for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”

By now, many of us are re-thinking our New Year’s resolutions. Some of us have failed not once, not twice even, but over and over again. We may have even made the same resolution last year, and the year before that. Yet many of us still commit to a resolution in hopes to change that which we don’t particularly care for in our lives. It could be negativity, weight, sobriety, you name it! We all have them.

On New Year’s Eve, I was driving in to work and listening to a country radio station. The DJ called in to a furniture store in Surprise, and he began playfully bantering with the lady on the other line, who apparently gets these calls quite often and plays along bantering back with the DJ. He asked her if she was going to go out to party that night, but she retorted matter-of-factly, “No, I don’t do that anymore. That was my life for many, many years, but I don’t do that anymore.” She continued on telling him that for fifteen years her New Year’s resolution was to be sober. Fifteen years! Then she said, “One day, it just stuck. I haven’t touched a drop for ten years.” He congratulated her and proceeded to keep the conversation forged ahead to the deals she was offering in her store.

Amazingly, this lady had made the same resolution in her heart for fifteen years before it stuck. I couldn’t help but think, “Wow! That’s a long time! And to be that persistent!” Then the Holy Spirit reminded me of an old saying, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Truth! This lady on the radio had failed repeatedly, and there must have been some heart-breaking times in those fifteen years. But she did not give up. I have no doubt she was a fellow believer in Christ because of a few things she said following her admission, and I have no doubt that it was the Holy Spirit who guided her along those dark paths back to the peace of the one true King.

It was the voice of God who pierced through my own short-comings that day telling me to not give up. I’m so glad He did because it gave me hope that one day I’ll get it right with the things I struggle with.

One day, we all will be able to look back and see the way God was woven throughout our weaknesses, short-comings, and downfalls. May the peace of God be with you all in this new year.

Peace,

Amanda