How many grades did you fail?

[Recent car conversation with my 10 year old Son:]

Brayden: The thing I hate about school is that you have to go for 13 years.
Me: (laugh)...I know Brayden. That's messed up.
PAUSE...
Me: Brayden guess how long I was in school.
Brayden: I don't know (his favorite response in life)
Me: Almost 20 years... (I'm counting college, grad school etc)
Long PAUSE...
Brayden: How many grades did you fail?
Me: (run off road a little bit from laughing)
Brayden: What's so funny?

Let's face it we are conditioned to think in terms of failure rather than progress. When something takes a long time we assume failure is involved rather than progress. What I know both from my personal experience with God and from the Bible is that God our heavenly Father is not in a hurry. Many times when people "finally" place their trust in Jesus after many years of life they can look back over their life and see various experiences and relationships that from the vantage point of "right now" were clearly God's activity. Strangely we often don't recognize God's activity in our life until we are looking back. Sometimes our failure is progress toward relationship with God. Sometimes our failure is God's process of moving us toward himself. Listen to Simmy's story it is so powerful. Thanks for your courage Simmy: