Saying No to Fear of Failure.

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"Set your gaze on the path before you.  With fixed purpose, looking straight ahead, ignore life’s distractions.  Watch where you’re going!  Stick to the path of truth, and the road will be safe and smooth before you.  Don’t allow yourself to be sidetracked for even a moment or take the detour that leads to darkness."
​Proverbs 4:25-27 TPT

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As a creative, and having such a visual and open display of your gifts can be a very vulnerable place.  Most creatives I know have had to learn to share their artwork, to be okay with pricing their artwork and even be open to questions or critiquing of their artwork.  I know from personal experience, that when you feel deeply about what you have put together with your hands, there is a huge space that can be filled with the opposite to who God created us to be.  It can be filled with fear, dread, fear of failure, fear of succeeding, fear of man, etc.  

I heard something recently that brought all this to mind really strongly and have had to address some things I didn't even realize were there.  Do you think about what someone might not like about your work, or your style or whether or not it will even sell?  These are huge reasons that have stopped many creatives in their tracks and can cause us to procrastinate into our calling, into prospering with the very gift that God has given us.

Fear and fear of failure itself are those distractions that take us off the path.  The very fact that your Heavenly Papa has blessed you with creative gifts, they are meant to bless you, bless others and to prosper!  He gets glory when you use them and bless others with them.  We get stunted in what we can thrive in when we choose to go off the path, and as it shares here in Proverbs, it takes us into darkness, and out of the light when we believe those lies.

After I heard a friend speaking about fear and failure the other day, I had a very beautiful revelation of no fear of failure, and how the Lord wants us to live in complete trust.  As I heard her speak, I saw little children running around heaven and I saw the Lord watching them play.  Then I saw one fall or make a mistake, and instead of feeling shame or guilt, they got up and smiled at the Lord and kept going.  There was no dread, there was no fear, and no connection to failure at all.  Failure doesn't describe God at all.  He makes us alive, to live abundantly, to prosper, to grow and to thrive.  

Can you picture it?  The next time there is a mistake, what feels like a fail, instead of letting that sinking feeling come in stronger where you begin to hear all the lies, look up at your Heavenly Papa and remember He sees you complete, with no failure.  Just dust yourself off and take His hand and keep going.  

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"So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are.  Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life.."
​Proverbs 4:23 TPT

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Misty Lea Chladek

Creator/Founder of Community of Christian Creatives

​​​​Watercolor artist, author, community builder, wife, lover of plants and the outdoors, daughter of the King of Kings. 
​She is a community builder on Instagram @communityofchristiancreatives and continues her artwork at @mistyleacreations.  Her book Love Letters of Jesus, which can be found on most online stores and her website, is the story about how God healed her of severe childhood diseases and is a testimony to God's goodness through the struggles.