Turning Failure into Success

I have something this morning with which probably every one of you is familiar. They are called Post-It Notes. If you need to leave a note for someone, you can just write a note and stick it on their door. If you need to remind yourself of something you have to do, just write a Post-It note and stick it up in a place where you will be sure to see it. My computer at school has sticky notes all over it to remind me of things I need to do. We use Post-It notes at home to remind us to take out the trash, to go to the store, and pick up the clothes from the cleaners. I don't know how we ever got along before Post-It notes were invented.

The Post-It Note was invented by the 3M company. That is the same company that makes Scotch tape. The Post-It Note is one of their best selling products and one of their most successful products ever, but did you know that it got its start with a failure? A scientist at 3M was working to try to improve the glue that they put on their tape so that it would stick better. He came up with a new formula for glue, but the new glue didn't stick very well at all. It would stick at first, but then it was very easily pulled off. He thought his new glue formula was a failure, but instead of throwing the formula in the trash, he decided to share it with others in the company and see if there might be some use for it. A man named Art Fry started trying the new glue in different ways and finally he came up with the idea for the Post-It Note. The rest is history! What started out to be a big failure for 3M turned out to be one of their greatest successes.

Sometimes the things we try to do in our lives don't turn out the way we thought they would. We were trying to do what we thought was best for us, but it just didn't work. When that happens, it is easy to just give up. Instead of giving up,what we need to do is turn it over to someone else. We need to turn it over to God! The Bible says that we plan our course, but the Lord directs our steps. Maybe we know where we want to go, but just can't seem to get there. If we will just put our faith and trust in Jesus, he will direct our steps. He can turn our failures into success.

Dear Lord, help us to remember that you can turn our failures into successes if we will trust in You. Amen.