What Should We Do When We Feel Like We Are Failing?

            Parents can strengthen their family, community, and nation by not giving up when the going gets tough. Difficulties may arise financially, socially, individually, and in other ways. However, the family was created to be a laboratory for learning and growing.

As much as parents want to create an ideal situation for their children, it does not always work out that way. Sometimes, parents feel like they failed, and they want to give up. It has happened to me, and it will happen to you. Sometimes we have to face the same difficulty more than one time, and we get so tired of dealing with it. There have been many times when I have wanted to quit and run far away, but I knew in my heart that it would not work.

How does one run away from God? In the Bible we learn about Jonah who was called on a mission by God, but Jonah did not want to go on that mission. He thought that he could run from God, so he tried. He learned from experience that there is no place where God cannot reach. When God gives us a mission, He expects us to fulfill it even though it is difficult. Creating an eternal family is a God-given mission that includes many difficulties. God will help us to complete that mission if we do not quit.

President Gordon B. Hinckley taught that we have not failed until we stop trying. As long as we continue to work at the difficulty, we have not failed. When asked about his failures, Thomas Edison said, “I have not failed 10,000 times – I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.”

Parenting is a different situation than science, and it is not always easy to discover how to solve problems within a family. What works in one family does not work in another because we are all individuals with our own quirky ways. It is immensely helpful if all family members are working together to solve a problem, but often times, an individual or more does not want to find an answer.

We never know when success will come, but we must not quit. Whether we are dealing with small problems or large ones, we have not failed unless we stop trying to solve the problem. Parents can strengthen their family, community, and nation by never giving up on their family.

 

Don’t Quit by Edgar Albert Guest

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.

 

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many a failure turns about,

When he might have won had he stuck it out.

Don’t give up though the pace seems slow.

You may succeed with another blow.

 

Often the goal is nearer than,

It seems to a faint and faltering man,

Often the struggler has given up,

When he might have captured the victor’s cup,

And he learned too late when the night slipped down,

How close he was to the golden crown.

 

Success is failure turned inside out.

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,

And you never can tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems so far,

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit.

It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit