FAITH MATTERS

There is something to be gained from failure, though I am sure most of us don’t want to experience it too often! From a very young age we are steered away from it, protected from it and many of us work very hard to avoid it. Yet failure, or specifically the mindset that allows us not to have so much fear about failing, is something that will help us grow, develop and indeed flourish. In a Christian community, our fears can certainly be eased and even replaced by faith.

Nick Foles, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, after being named MVP at the Superbowl gave fans some great advice about embracing failure. "I think the big thing is don't be afraid to fail," Foles said. "In our society today — you know, Instagram, Twitter, it's a highlight reel. It's all the good things. And then when you look at it, you think, like, wow, when you have a rough day or your life's not as good as that, you're failing.

"Failure is a part of life. That's a part of building character and growing. Like, without failure, who would you be? I wouldn't be up here if I hadn't fallen thousands of times, made mistakes. We all are human. We all have weaknesses."  Foles also happens to be Chirstian and his faith gives him incredible strength and purpose.Throughout his sporting career (so far!) Foles experienced injury, being benched, ending up in leadership roles through the injury of others and even contemplated retiring. "I'm not perfect — I'm not Superman," Foles said. "I might be in the NFL, and we might have just won the Super Bowl, but hey, we still have daily struggles. I have daily struggles. But that's where my faith comes in. That's where my family comes in." He continued: "I think when you look at a struggle in your life, just know that that's just an opportunity for your character to grow. And that's really just been the message. Simple. Like, if something's going on in your life and you're struggling, embrace it, because you're growing."

We all experience failure at some point in our lives. It might be something big like a Driving Test, or it might be something smaller like understanding a question in class. Regardless of the scale, the important thing is to develop a mindset, an approach, an attitude where the fear of failure doesn’t hold us back. Sometimes we see students shy away from tasks or activities because of a fear of failure.This is of course natural, we are all conscious of the judgement of others and young people perhaps even more so. Yet, imagine if we could all give ourselves over to wholehearted trying - giving our best every day, every moment. Jumping in even when we are unsure, learning from each misstep knowing that it is just a slight deviation from the path, but still part of the path. Our school Mission and Vision speaks of the dignity of the human person because we believe in striving to push the boundaries of our capabilities in order to learn and grow. Sometimes, in the pushing, we fail. Sometimes, we even fail to push. Yet in order to learn and grow we need to move into the uncomfortable and embrace the fear of what can go wrong, have faith and take the leap anyway!