Have you ever felt like you had good intentions but didn’t get the desired result?
It can be in a simple thing like baking a cake and leaving it in too long. The timer dings, but you turn it off for just a few more minutes of baking time, without resetting the timer. The few minutes become longer than expected because you got side-tracked and forgot. The cake is a burnt offering.
If you’re a mom, maybe you’ve experienced this one: You take your children to the pool and slather sunscreen on their arms, back, legs, and most of their faces—but forget to put sunscreen on their noses. The Result? A Rudolph-nosed kiddo in the summer.
Or it could be forgetting an important doctor’s appointment because you got involved in a project at home.
Or maybe you yelled at your kids again instead of being patient with them.
I’ve done those things.The list goes on and on.
We want to do right with good intentions, but something happens that messes up the desired outcome. How can we live in the tension of trying our best and feeling like a failure?
When our failed intentions threaten to overwhelm us we need to remember our identity in Christ.
Grace covers our disappointed hearts with God’s love and acceptance.
In Romans 5:8 the apostle Paul wrote: 
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
This is a statement of significance that says, “I matter to God.”
The next time you’re in the battle of good intentions, tell yourself this: While I did what I could and came up short, God still loves me and Christ died for me.
When we become more secure in our identity as someone valued and loved by God, we grow in confidence. Our identity is not in what we do or in what we have not done, but it is in the fact that we bear the image of the Creator.
The next time you feel like you tried your best intentions and came up short, remember that God accepts you as you are. He redeems the intentions.
P.S. Have you had “food fails?” Click here to see how to redeem the good intentions of a kitchen flop.
This post is part of Word Filled Wednesday Link Up by w2wministries.org
