Thought for the Day 2/24/2023

 Friday Tale ~ Learning from Failure

          During an interview with a newspaper reporter a famous research scientist who had made a number of very important medical breakthroughs was asked why he was able to make the medical break throughs and what set him apart from others in his field?

          He responded that, in his opinion, it all came from an experience with his mother that occurred when he was about four years old. He had been trying to remove a bottle of milk from the refrigerator when he lost his grip on the cold and somewhat slippery bottle and it fell and broke spilling its contents all over the kitchen floor creating a veritable sea of milk!

          When his mother came into the kitchen, instead of yelling at him and giving him a lecture what he had done wrong or punishing him, she said, ‘My son, what a great and wonderful mess you have made! I have rarely seen such a huge puddle of milk. Well, the damage has already been done. His mother then said, ‘You know, whenever you make a mess like this, eventually you have to clean it up and restore everything to its proper order. So, how would you like to do that?

          We could use a sponge, a towel, or a mop. Which do you prefer?’

          He chose the sponge and together they cleaned up the spilled milk.

          His mother then said . . . ‘You know, what we have here is a failed experiment in how to effectively carry a big milk bottle with two tiny hands. Let's go out in the back yard and fill another empty milk bottle with water and see if you can discover a way to carry it without dropping it.’

          With the help of his mother, he learnt that if he grasped the bottle at the top near the lip with both hands, he could carry it without dropping it.

          The now famous scientist then remarked that it was at that moment that he knew he didn't need to be afraid to make mistakes with whatever he did in life. Instead, he learned that mistakes were just opportunities for learning something new or a different way to do something, which is, after all, what scientific experiments are all about. Even if the experiment doesn't work, we usually learn something valuable from it.

~ Author Unknown

 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall read and meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything in accordance with all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will be successful. ~ Joshua 1:8