All you have to do to win...

..is rise each time you fall.

 

My mother always told me in my swim or track type races or whatever, that the only thing that mattered, was finishing the race. Not what my time was or how quality my stroke was or what I looked like, just the fact that I finished at all.

 

Last friday, (the day after second Christmas. Yeah, we had a second Christmas. It was probably better than real Christmas...) I was on an exchange in Apeldoorn. It was raining the ENTIRE day and there were no appointments. We biked about an hour and a half out to this small town to contact a referral and check on some potentials/invetigators. Of all the doors we knocked, maybe two people were home. And to add to that, I was riding this other zuster's bike, and it was heavy. I ended up crashing. Once on the way back from the little town, and once later on that night, right before we went home. I ended up ripping my skirt AND tights all the way down to my skin where i got a nice old scrape on my knee. I had pounded the pavement for the second time. I was bruised. In pain. And I cried like I was a five year old who just stubbed my toe. Even after that, however, I got right back up, picked up the bike, and got back on it and rode it on home. I probably would've gone to do some last minute work before the time came to go in, but I thought that it would be a little unprofessional to show up on someone's doorstep with a ripped skirt and a bleeding knee.

 

As I got ready for bed that night, I reflected on that day. We didn't run into a lot of people to talk to. Nobody we visited was really home. I just spent a lot of time biking. In the rain. and falling down. that was really painful... But I realized that I still felt successful after that day. Even though we hadn't really even done anything. All I had done was endured and continued to go about doing good despite my best efforts not doing much. But even though they didn't do much, they stil made a difference.

 

I learned that we are going to have days like that. When we just keep falling. But success isn't in the not falling in the first place, it's about getting back up and trying again. It's about enduring. And it's about having hope. Hope in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He already gave His life--He's not going to give up on you now.

 

I like Jeffrey R. Holland. Here is a quote. "however many chances youthink you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talent syou think you dont have or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ's atonement shines."

 

I know I started with endurance and awkwardly moved into repenatance but they're really good principles, guys.

 

have a good week. happy new year! Goeie jaar whisseling!

 

xoxo

 

zuster hoff