By: Chaplain Doug Samples, SNU Professional and Graduate Studies
This is the second in a series of articles Chaplain Doug Samples has shared called 10 Decisions for a Positive Attitude. Decision #8 is, “Decide to never give up.” You can view all 10 decisions here.
As we head into the home stretch of this ten-part series, I thought it might be good to give a recap of where we’ve been…and where we’re going!
I don’t think great attitudes just happen. But I believe that everyone can build a lifestyle on personal decisions about how we live our life.
Over these past weeks, I have been sharing with you 10 decisions that I make on a regular basis to remind me how I want to live my life. Here’s the full list:
- Decide to Choose Your Own Attitude
- Decide to See Opportunities rather than Problems
- Decide to Go in the Fun Car
- Decide to “Sit on the Lid and Laugh”
- Decide to NOT Make Life Worse than it Already is
- Decide to Get Happy or Fake it
- Decide to Take Responsibility for Yourself
- Decide to Never Give Up
- Decide to Magnify the Lord, Rather than your Problems
- Decide to Dream BIG Dreams for God
Decision eight is choosing to never give up. As we have said several times throughout this series, all of us are going to face difficult days that make it too difficult to “Get in the Fun Car.” Many of us have had enough tragedy happen to us that we could blame other people for our struggles rather than taking responsibility for ourselves (decision seven).
However, when we have been beaten down by life and strung several failures together back-to-back, we need to remember these good words from Abraham Lincoln: “Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.”
Did you actually catch what he said? You might want to go back and read that again.
Abraham Lincoln lost 12 different presidential races before he was elected President of the United States. Aren’t we glad he didn’t give up? Aren’t we glad Sir Winston Churchill didn’t give up during the darkest days of WWII?
Aren’t we glad Jesus didn’t give up on the way to the cross?
You may be facing an especially difficult time in your life. Let me encourage you not to give up!
Don’t. Let. Failure. Win.
Ask God for help! Ask me for help!
Email me at dsamples@snu.edu. I would love to come along side you to assure you that you are NOT alone! We can do this!
