Good Morning Brown Clee!

It is so lovely having everyone back in school again – and yesterday we shared what we had been looking forward to: seeing our friends, playing together, learning together.

Today I want us to think about what it’s like when we stumble…have a look at this picture…

Have you ever had a stumble and grazed your knee and needed a sticking plaster?  Have any of you even done more damage, and maybe broken a bone?  What were you doing when this happened to you?

Learning to walk, run and ride a bike are all skills that involve some element of falling or stumbling.  Have a watch of this video and count the number of times that the baby stumbles….

I counted 12 times…..but I also noticed she was always smiling and she kept on trying! Sometimes, the child wobbled, but then regained her balance. Sometimes, someone helped her by holding her hand. And although she achieves the aim of walking in the end, the process involved falling . . . getting up . . . falling . . . getting up . . . until eventually, she could walk unaided.

In our lives, we all face challenges. We all ‘stumble’ at some points; we all fall down and have to get up and keep on trying. There are times when we stumble in our school studies, when learning a new sport, when we need to give a presentation to a group of people, when we apply for a job, and when we interact and build friendships and relationships with others. When this happens, we have a choice to make – do we give up or do we get up and try again?

Do you recognise this person?

It’s Colonel Sanders from KFC! Stumbling was something that Colonel Sanders knew a lot about; he had created a recipe for fried chicken that he wanted to share with others and he had ambitions to start a business based on his recipe. At the age of 65, he travelled to houses and restaurants all over his local area. He wanted to partner with someone to help promote his chicken recipe. However, he was met with little enthusiasm and his idea was rejected many times before he heard his first ‘yes’.

However, it is from these beginnings that the international brand of KFC was founded. Colonel Sanders stumbled many times before achieving his dream. Each time, he decided not to give up, but to carry on, showing resilience and determination.

We all stumble at times, and quite often when learning new things – so school is somewhere that lots of stumbles happen!  They’re normal – and actually quite important – as long as we pick ourselves up! Setbacks are part of the life and learning and to succeed we need to choose to embrace them and learn from them.

Have a listen to this video of J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, speaking to students graduating at Harvard University in 2008 when she was awarded an honorary degree and listen to what she says about stumbling and failure….

Let’s take a moment to reflect upon something that we are finding difficult to master at the moment. This could be a particular skill or situation, a relationship that we are finding tricky or any number of different issues and setbacks.

Let’s take a moment to consider that this area of stumbling could make us stronger, more resilient and more determined. Can we see the benefits of stumbling in this particular situation?

Prayer of the Day

Dear God,
Thank you that we can learn from every difficult situation.
Please help us to be people of resilience.
Help us to get back up again when things go wrong.
Help us never to give up.
Help us to persevere.
Thank you for the courage and resilience of people who have shown us that stumbling need not mean failure,
For people we know and for inspirational figures who are role models to us.
We are thankful for their example.
Give us the courage and determination to use the power of ‘yet’.
Amen.