Failure Leads to Extraordinary Achievements

Any respectable goal includes hurdles and obstructions.  It’s rare that a linear expressway takes us to our goals. 

In the story, “The Opportunity Buggy” from my latest book, Covered, a preteen girl, Helen, has an audacious goal, to be independent and live well, as she rolls outside in her wheelchair, having lost the use of her legs in a car accident. But she tips over, scraping her arm, frustrated by the failure. The family’s feisty housekeeper, Mrs. Ludwig comes to her rescue.

“I hate that chair. I hate it,” Helen screamed. She was crying now. “It’s ugly and I’m sick of it, sick of being stuck in a wheel chair, sick of being a cripple!”

“Miss Helen, sounds like your attitude, more than your situation, is what needs helpin” [Mrs. Ludwig said]

Mrs Ludwig helped Helen sit up.

“Now you listen to me, Miss Helen, it ain’t your wheelchair’s got you trapped, it’s your thinkin’ that’s got you trapped.”

Helen held her sore arm. “I can’t even go outside by myself without falling down and getting hurt,” she said, whimpering.

“Guess we gonna have to work on fallin’ so’s you can learn how to git up.”

Obstacles shape us, make us wiser, kinder and more compassionate. Overcoming mountains teach us how to survive, molding valleys and failures into extraordinary achievements. Read Covered and learn the rest of Helen's story.

Turning On The Light

This excerpt from the new book Covered, by Judy Buch, shows how prayer blankets connect us with others and The Lord, making a difference.

In the autumn of 2009, Dr. Helen Masino Morgan, drove into the parking lot at the Community Nursing Home, walking with crutches, carrying a large package. The woman at the desk pointed down the hall to the community room. When Helen walked in, a 90-year-old woman stood up, coming to greet her, using a walker, smiling like she’d just seen a miracle. She was dressed in a Navy blue dress with a large pink and white corsage. Balloons, streamers and signs that read “90th Birthday,” decorated the room.Mrs. Ludwig opened the box and held up a prayer blanket in front of her that Helen had made. The print motif was sparrows. Words embroidered around the border, read, “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.”

"I came to give you a gift and wish you a happy birthday," Helen said.

They hugged and talked, catching up with each other's lives. 

"This blanket is filled with my prayers for you, Mrs. Ludwig, for those times in the dark night when you might need to reach out and touch the prayers said for you. So many years ago, you were my hope when I had none. You were my light when I was so lost and confused, losing my mother, losing my legs. And you changed the words and sang, ‘His eye is on the Sparrow, and I know He watches you,’. Do you remember?”

She nodded and dabbed at her eyes with her handkerchief.

“Sometimes, Mrs. Ludwig said, “life has a way of losin’ folks, and it’s like they feelin’ they way ‘round a dark room, lookin’ for a way out. And then suddenly, someone turns on the hall light and they can see it shinin’ under the door. And that’s when they know they can find they way. You jest needed someone to turn on the hall light, that’s all that was.”