Are you too good to fail?

What’s the first thing you do when you mess up?

A lot of us are like the veteran baseball player who got angry at his manager who one day decided to put in a rookie in the right field. The regular fielder wasn’t happy about the change and loudly let it be known from the bench how he thought it was a mistake to play the kid.

As it turned out, the rookie was so nervous he messed up big time. He made a couple of errors and misjudged several other fly balls that should have been called errors. Each time he messed up, the veteran complained loudly from the bench.

Finally, late in the game, the manager replaced the rookie with the veteran, mostly to shut up the seasoned fielder. Not long after, the veteran mishandled the first ball hit to him for an error. As he came off the field at the end of the inning, everyone on the bench became very quiet so they could hear what he would say.

The manager was waiting for the veteran, but before he could address the man, the veteran ballplayer threw his glove down in disgust and said, “Skipper, that kid has right field so messed up nobody can play it!”

When you mess up, what do you have to say about yourself? The Apostle Paul gives us some guidance regarding how to handle our own performance …

“Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct,” Ephesians 6:4-5.

Are you blaming someone else for your own errors? Or are you taking responsibility for your own mistakes?

Scotty