IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED, KEEP TRYING!
 
So Moses spoke thus to the sons of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses on account of their despondency and cruel bondage (Exodus 6:9).  But Moses spoke before the Lord, saying, Behold, the sons of Israel have not listened to me; how then will Pharaoh listen to me, for I am unskilled in speech. (Exodus 6:12)
 
            I once read that a certain professional basketball player said that over his career he had missed 9,000 shots.  He had been involved in almost 300 games that his team lost; and 26 times he had been trusted to take the game winning shot, and missed.  Just considering those statistics, you would think that this particular player was not very good.  However, I would argue that he was one of the greatest basketball players of all time.  His name is Michael Jordan.  The lesson to be learned is that one failure does not define your life. 
            As Christians we should never give in to failure.  In fact, if you have never failed at something, you probably have not tried many things.  There are many reasons why we may fail at something initially.  Perhaps we underestimated the difficulty of the task.  Perhaps there was opposition that we did not foresee.  Perhaps individuals who we counted on to help us did not follow through on their promise.  Whatever the reason, we must not become despondent and give up just because something does not unfold the way we planned it.  If you don't succeed at first, try again.
            In the passage above, Moses felt defeated because the Israelites did not believe in what he told them.  Accordingly, he did not believe that Pharaoh would set the people free, if he could not even convince the Israelites that it would happen.  He wanted to give up.  But God instructed him to keep trying.  We all know how the story ends.  The Israelites were eventually released from Egyptian bondage, and Moses became a hero.
            Whatever your goals are during this period of time, I hope that you will pursue them vigorously.  You may have some bumps in the road, but don't give up.  You are not a failure because you fail at something.  You are only a failure if you stop believing in yourself.  Remember, you can do all things through Christ that strengthens you! (Philippians 4:13) In other words, if at first you don't succeed; try, try, again.