Last week, I posted about discipline, and I do believe having the right mindset about the benefits of discipline is very important. I also believe it is extremely important to have the right mindset about setbacks. We are human. We will fail. We will have setbacks—no way to avoid them.
Matthew 26:41 says, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Our spirit wants to do the right thing, but as long as we are here on this earth, we will be fighting the flesh. And, the flesh is strong. Can I get an amen?!?!? The flesh is weak. Romans 7:18, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” The flesh will win sometimes over the spirit because we live in a fallen world! But, we will NOT be defeated—we don’t succumb to the flesh because in Christ, we are slaves to the Spirit! And, that is a very good thing because “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom!” 2 Corinthians 3:17
So, I must follow up from last week’s powerful quote with another powerful quote:
Sometimes you win. Sometimes you learn. I first heard this from Kara at Wellness Witness
Too often, we set out with some new good ideal. A new “discipline” we rightly take on for some good purposes. But, 2 days in, or if you are really good at pulling up those boot straps, one week in, you have a setback. What usually happens then? What are you going to do when you have that setback?
Let’s have the right mentality: Sometimes we win. Sometimes we learn. There is no “losing.” When you have that setback, see it as a learning experience. Maybe you learn because you are reminded of why you are choosing that discipline. Maybe you learn because you have regret and you remember how good that pain of discipline is.
We also cannot have an all or nothing mentality. We will NOT always get it right. We are human, weak, and we live in a fallen world. We will make mistakes, so we must give ourselves grace, and not allow ourselves to be defeated. We learn from our mistakes, we say thank you to God that He is the ONLY ONE that is perfect and gets it right all the time. This is the power of the Gospel.
Then, we say thank you for grace and that His mercies are new over and over again (Lamentations 3:22-23). We say thank you that His grace is sufficient for us in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). We are thankful we can get back up and right back at it even better than before because we learned something new.
Sometimes we win. Sometimes we learn. And when you have this perspective, we can actually do both!