If You Faint Not – Slinkard On Success

By: D. A. Slinkard

Have you noticed how easy it is for people to quit on things in life? It amazes me how easy we have enabled people to just throw their hands up in the air and say, “That’s it, I am just not going to do this anymore.” We have become a society that lives our life based upon convenience. We would rather do what feels right versus doing what we know is right. I immediately think about the subject of divorce and how many families have been destroyed all because people too often quit on the wrong things in life. Greater than 50% of all marriages end in divorce, and because we make it too easy to get in and out of relationships, I am fearful we will see this number only stagger higher.

I can remember being a kid and my dad talking to me about not quitting on activities, projects, etc., and what he said has stuck with me thirty years after he made the comments. The words were simple when Jefferson Slinkard spoke them to me saying, “The first time you quit, the decision is hard to make. You go back and forth on whether or not quitting is the right decision. You finally make your decision to quit and you move on. Then the next time comes up, and the decision is a little easier to make because you have already decided to quit once before. Over time, the more you make the decision to quit in life, the easier the decision becomes, eventually to the point that you will start quitting on things in life and not give any thought to it.”

I believe we have become a society of quitters because we have made quitting way too easy. Quitting has become our great escape, how we get out of the obligations we were previously bound to, when life gets a little tough. We love life when things are going our way, but the moment things begin to get a little complicated, that is the minute we start squirming, trying to figure out the easiest way for us to get through the situation. How many books have been printed and sold based upon people trying to get the most out of life with the least amount of effort?

This is the point in which we need to stop lying to ourselves, to our kids, to our friends, to our families and let people know that finding success in life takes work. I also believe that success in life takes having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. As I write this article I think of Galatians 6:9, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” We must keep on doing what we know is right and eventually we will reap what we sow.

We have to be of a different mindset of the world and further proof comes straight from the King James Bible in 1 John 2:15-17, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any many love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.” This scripture sums up the majority of our societal problems that plague us today. If we would just walk obediently towards God’s Word and avoid the lusts of the flesh, avoid the worldly things, we would know a much different world than what we have today.

The decision to change our life begins within an instant, and if you have changes that need to be made or maybe you have grown accustomed to quitting in life, I urge you to make the conscious decision to not let it happen anymore. Every waking moment of every day we are continuously making decisions that impact our lives. What will we eat, what will we watch, what will we do? We all make decisions that may not seem important but ultimately dictate the directions in which our lives will head. The question becomes — Will we make the right choices or the convenient choices? In due season you shall reap, if you faint not.

By: D. A. Slinkard
D.A. Slinkard is the manager of the Athens Staples store