Shakespeare once said: ‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.’ A thing is what it is because that’s what it is, not what someone calls it. And we are what we are, not what people call us. A failure is not necessarily someone who fails. Those who fail are often the ones who eventually succeed, because success comes from taking risks and learning from the failures along the way. The only real failure is someone who simply doesn’t try. No, names don’t determine who we are. We are who we are on the inside.
So, the first important lesson in life is to cultivate our inner person. The Bible recognises this and says that it is God’s ‘glorious, unlimited resources that empower us with inner strength through his Spirit.’ Our best self is the self God empowers us to be.