Worth Noting

My mom read this today and sent it to me - I thought it was worth sharing.

See Failure As A Stepping Stone.
Philippians 4:13 (MSG): Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.

It’s been said that failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead-end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.

The two words that have caused more failures in people’s lives than any other are: I CAN’T! The only limitations that you have are those that you have set up in your own mind, or those which you have allowed others to set up for you. God didn’t make you with limitations!

You may not know the background of a certain laundry worker who earned $60 a week at his job but had the burning desire to be a writer. His wife worked nights, and he spent nights and weekends typing manuscripts to send to publishers and agents. Each one was rejected with a form letter that gave him no assurance that his manuscript had even been read.

But finally, a warm, more personal rejection letter came in the mail to the laundry worker, stating that, although his work was not good enough at this point to warrant publishing, he had promise as a writer and he should keep writing. He forwarded two more manuscripts to the same friendly-yet-rejecting publisher over the next 18 months, and as before, he struck out with both of them.

Finances got so tight for the young couple that they had to disconnect their telephone to pay for medicine for their baby.

Feeling totally discouraged, he threw his latest manuscript into the garbage. His wife, believing in his talent, took the manuscript out of the trash and sent it to Doubleday, the publisher who had sent the friendly rejections.

The book, titled Carrie, sold over 5 million copies and, as a movie, became one of the top-grossing films in 1976.

The laundry worker was Stephen King.

Failure is never fatal! The current chapter of your life does not have to be the final chapter. What looks like your tombstone may be a stepping stone to something.