The Search for Significance

82 The Search For Significance
whatever will be most helpful to
the one who has
offended us. In this way, we neither repress our
emotions nor respond to others in a reactionary,
manipulative way.
We have a choice in our response to failure: We
can condemn or we can learn. All of us fail, but
this doesn't mean that we are failures. We need to
understand that failing can be a step toward maturity,
not a permanent blot on our self-esteem.
Like children, we all stumble and fall. And, just
like children first learning to walk, we can pick
ourselves up and begin again. We don't have to
allow failure to prevent us from being used by
God.
God forgives His children and wants us to experience
His forgiveness on a daily basis. For example,
Moses was a murderer, but God forgave
him and used him to deliver Israel from Egypt.
David was an adulterer and a murderer, but God
forgave him and made him a great king. Peter denied
the Lord, but God forgave him and Peter became
a leader in the church. God rejoices when
His children learn to accept His forgiveness, pick
themselves up, and walk after they have stumbled.
But, in addition, we must learn to forgive ourselves.
We need to take our sins and failures to
Christ and rejoice in His forgiveness.
Many psychologists today adhere to a theory
called Rational Emotive Therapy. This very helpful
theory states that blame is the core of most
emotional disturbances. The answer, they insist, is
for each of us to stop blaming ourselves and others,
and learn to accept ourselves in spite of imperfection.
How right they are! Christ's death is
the complete payment for sin, and we can claim
His complete forgiveness and acceptance.
Thousands of emotional problems are rooted in
the false belief that we must meet certain standards
to be acceptable, and that the only way to