Dearly Beloved in Christ,

Greetings in the matchless name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

“Him you love, though your eyes have never looked on Him. In Him, though at present you cannot see Him, you nevertheless trust, and triumph with a joy which is unspeakable and is crowned with glory,” – 1Peter 1:8

If you look up the word “triumph” in the thesaurus, you will find words like victory, win, achievement, and conquest. You will also find words like joy, celebrate, jubilation, and rejoice. Then if you look up “fail” or “failure”, you will find defeat, ineffectiveness, fault, and inferiority; and you will also find wither, collapse, and, of course, disappointment.

These word associations from the thesaurus are merely reflections of how our society views success and failure. No wonder so many children feel that winning is all important and that failure is unacceptable. And since all of us fail at being perfect parents, spouses, children, friends, and Christians, we are set up for a pretty miserable existence. But it does not have to be that way. God never intended it to be so.

Christ did not die for us when we were winners. In fact, God’s Word says that “at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” God, our heavenly Father, sent Jesus “at just the right time” – when we were powerless… failures… last place finishers. What a great lesson for us as earthly parents. When our children lose the contest, fail the exam, or fall on their way to the finish line, that is when they need our best – they need us to imitate our heavenly Father and love them when they fail. They need warm hugs to renew self-esteem, raised arms at the finish line (even if they finish last), pats on the back, and words of affirmation at the final horn – no matter the outcome. They need to know it is all right to fail, for they will do plenty of that in this life. We can rewrite the thesaurus and teach our sons and daughters, friends, and relatives, and even our moms and dads that there is pride in trying, celebration in participating, joy in simply running the race. Let us add some new words under the word failure like acceptance, encouragement, and hope. “At just the right time” – when they have failed – let us share with them the victory we have found in our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Due to Covid 19 pandemic the situation is getting worse around the world and as well as in our mother country India too. Kindly uphold our mother land and the whole world in our prayers.

Grace and Peace,
In His Service

Yours Shalu Achen