Try, try again!

My youngest daughter does not eat a well balanced diet, and to be quite honest, it drives me crazy.  It is constant struggle.  In the beginning quest of finding solid foods she liked, she always had a variety of foods she liked.  Well after turning 18 months old the lists of likes has slowly dwindled.   She will not try anything new and she basically lives on cheese, yogurt, crackers, cheerios and fruit.  She loves all fruit, which is a positive, but no veggies or meat.  She asks for goldfish crackers about 15 times a day and cereal bars about 5 times a day.

I know everyone says she will not starve and she will eat when she is hungry, but it has been a challenging month as I have been limiting her favorites.  

The only veggie she will sometimes eat is corn on the cob, not off the cob, only still on the cob. (I have to laugh because I remember only liking it on the cob myself as a child.)  Even though I know she does not eat other veggies (even though she used to eat them), I still add them to her plate every night.  I read that persistence is key.  You still put it in front of them.  Most nights I pray as I prepare her plate that she will eat something besides the fruit, but it never happens...

Never until last night!!!!

Yes, my little fruit loving child picked up a piece of broccoli (that she use to love but hasn't touched in 8 months) and she studied it.  She looked at it from every angle.  I didn't say a word.  Then she popped it in her mouth.  Then she ate another and another.  She cleaner her plate.  We gave her more.  Then she even ate a few pieces off her sister's plate.  We were ecstatic.  She was eating!!!!!

Stories of failures have crossed my path a lot this week.  I have read an article on famous people who failed.  I heard a story on the morning news of a famous business owner who failed in the beginning.  Failures occur everyday.  I have failed countless times, and I felt like a failure that I couldn't get my child to eat.  

How do we handle a failure?

Instead of trying to handle our failures, what if we "handed" our failures to God.  He can give us the strength and courage to keep trying.  When we hand Him our mistakes, He has the power to turn our failures into triumphs.  I have heard it said that God can take our messes and turn them into miracles that point to His grace and power.  I also heard someone describe it as turning our messes into our message for God.  And lastly, I heard a pastor say He turns our mistakes into our testimonies.

Today's Verse

Psalms 68:35b
"the God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people.  Blessed be God."

We keep trying and He keeps supplying the strength until we get it right!  We can never fail too many times for God.  As the saying goes, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.  God looks past our failures and sees His child, whom He loves and wants to help.  We simply must keep trying and relying on Him.