How we respond to failures and mistakes is one of the most important decisions we make every day. How do you respond to failure? Failure doesn’t mean that nothing has been accomplish. There is always the opportunity to learn something.

We all experience failure and make mistakes. In fact, successful people always have more failure in their lives than average people do. Great people throughout history have all failed at some point in their lives. Those do not expect anything are never disappointed; those who never try never fail. Anyone who is currently achieving anything in life is simultaneously risking failure. It is always better to fail in doing something than to excel at doing nothing. A flawed diamond is more valuable than a perfect brick. People who have no failure also have few victories.

People get knocked down; it is how fast they get up that counts. There is a positive correlation between spiritual maturity and how quickly a person responds to failures and mistakes. Individuals who are spiritually mature have a greater ability to get up and go on than people spiritually immature. The less mature the person, the longer he or she holds past failures. God never sees any of us as failures; He only sees as us learners.

We truly fail only when we do not learn from an experience. The decision is up to us. We can choose to turn a failure into a hitching post or a guidepost.

Here is a key to being free from the stranglehold of past and make mistakes: Learn the lesson and forget the details. Have you ever noticed that the devil never reminds you of the lesson? He only wants you to remember the details. Gain from the experience, but do not roll the minute details of it over and over in your mind. Build on the experience, and get on with your life.

Remember that the call is higher than the fall.