I adore my little nephew Hutch. In his first couple years of life, he has taught me a lot about how to start over.

Whenever I get the opportunity to visit my family back in Iowa I am laser focused on playing with him, almost to the point where the rest of my family probably thinks I’m ignoring them. But even without me he is still on a mission to have fun, play, explore, and learn.

You can find all different kinds of toys stepping into my sister’s house, with at least 50 percent of them making some sort of absurd noise to grab his attention. One of my favorite things to watch him play with is his blocks. Bonus, they don’t make any noise… or so I thought.

Hutch used to be obsessed with building these huge towers with his blocks. He would work for what seemed like hours to stumble back and forth from his creation to the pile of blocks on the ground. He would get pretty ambitious too.

Hutch would struggle to get the last piece connected to the very top, inching his way up onto his tippy toes. And then, CRASH! He literally destroys the entire thing. All the pieces falling to the ground as he would turn towards my sister, clap for himself, laugh, and begin building again.

 

HOW TO START OVER

He would start from scratch over, and over, and over. I thought he was just an crazed toddler at first, doing what he did best, causing chaos. Then I realized he actually had it all figured out.

There was no hesitation, no fear of failure, no overanalyzing what went wrong, or what he didn’t like about the previous tower of blocks. He just saw it as a brand new opportunity to grow, to build again, to have fun, and to ultimately shrug off what just happened and step into the next moment.

Sometimes we need to remember it’s ok to start over when things don’t turn out the way we planned, when our life seems to be crashing down. Easier said than done when it’s not a children’s toy but it’s actually our career, or our relationship, or our health… Right?

 

HOW TO START OVER WITH GOD

Even when we feel like there is no other way, when we feel stuck staring at the blocks that have fallen to the ground, we need to remember that after the dust settles we have a choice to start over.

It’s ok to go back to the blueprint, reconfigure the design of our lives, pick up the pieces and rebuild.

 

LEARN FROM FAILURE AND RECONNECT TO PURPOSE

“Everything happens on purpose for our purpose.” – Zachariah Thompson

We have to step back and look at our situation with greater perspective. Beginning again takes a bit of self-awareness to discover the reason, because there is no doubt a greater purpose in failure.

J.K. Rowling once said that rock bottom became the solid foundation on which she rebuilt her life. In my life, rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life with God.

Failure has reminded me to lean on Jesus, to put Him back at the center, to build my life on the rock bottom solid foundation of His word. (Matthew 7:24-25)

That alone allows us to connect our trials to His purpose and the purpose He has created us for. I’ve learned that when God calls us to start over we can reconnect and reinvent ourselves. We can’t become the person we need to be without failure.

Failure isn’t a set back, it’s a step back to give us greater perspective of our lives.

 

IT TAKES FAITH AND COURAGE TO RENEW OUR MINDS AND HEARTS

“Faith is the only known antidote for failure.” – Napoleon Hill

So sure we trusted it was all for a purpose, His purpose, our purpose. But knowing that doesn’t just automatically make starting over easy. It takes faith and courage to start over, forcing us to renew our minds and begin thinking differently about our current situation. This allows us to step into the new unknown. (Romans 12:2)

If we continue to think like we used to think then we will continue to do the things we used to do.

I’ve learned that faith alone doesn’t move mountains. Courage is needed to push ourselves into a situation where our faith can create change—renew our minds and hearts. Failure gives us the freedom to reimagine our lives aligned with faithful action.

 

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Intentional Questions:

“Where do I feel like I need to start over?”

“What can I learn?”

“How does this connect with my purpose?”

“What is God calling me to step into?”

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Matthew 7:24-25

So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts upon them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

Romans 12:2

Don’t be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what God’s will is—what is good and pleasing and mature.