Encouragement

Making mistakes can really get you down. Today, I made a mistake. After tuition, I rushed to school (in the rain, I might add, carrying a laptop, umbrella and my bag). But after the 1 hour train journey, I was already on the bus 5 minutes away from school for night class when I read an sms from my piano teacher who had been sitting in my living room for the past 15 minutes waiting for me. I forgot totally about piano lesson even though she smsed me the previous night. So I got off at the nearest bus stop and flagged a cab home. Plus I didn't inform Joanne about it, hence she was still in Clementi attending class and had to miss lesson. All culminating in a very stressful pity-party at the backseat of the cab.

But amidst the emotions and self-reproach, I was suddenly reminded by phrases like:

"You determine who you are by how you react in the worst situations."

"Stress is the product of thinking that you cannot handle it anymore. So why do you think you can't handle it?"

Then I remembered David, how he returned after a battle to find that all the wives and children of his men had been kidnapped by his enemies. Imagine how he must have felt. He didn't only fail himself, but the wives and children of other people who relied on him were at stake as well. His self-reproach and despair must have been off the charts, but yet he managed to encourage himself in God. So I was thinking, this is just a small mistake compared to his, if he can find the strength in himself to do that, I can too.

It's awesome to be encouraged by friends and family. In fact, God works through them as well. Just that God has to be the foundation of your courage. If He is the first one you turn to to be encouraged, you can conquer anything because His encouragement comes with Truth. And just like how I realised something about my character through this incident today, I also gained an insight into who I am made to be when I turned to the right source :]