A Diamond is a Hunk of Coal that Stuck to Its Job and Made Good Under Pressure.
Our daily prayer should be, "Lord, give me the determination and tenacity of a weed." I don’t like weeds, but I have to admire their resolve. A great oak is only a little nut that held its ground. “ Somebody is sitting in the shade today because someone long ago planted a tree (Warren Buffett). "These troubles and sufferings of ours are, after all, quite small and won't last very long. Yet this short time of distress will result in God's richest blessing upon us forever and ever" (2 Cor. 4:17). Most of us take hold of opportunity, but we let go of it too soon.
"Many people fail in life because they believe in the adage: `If you don't succeed at one thing right away, try something else.' But success eludes those who follow such advice. The dreams they have come true did so because people stuck to their ambitions. They refused to be discouraged. They never let disappointment get the upper hand. Challenges only spurred them on to greater efforts" (Don B. Owens, Jr.). You’ll be judged by what you finish, not by what you start. If you don't see results right away, don't worry. God doesn’t pay by the week, He pays at the end.
All great achievements require time and tenacity. "The reward for those who persevere far exceeds the pain that must precede the victory" (Ted Engstrom). It is not success that God rewards, but faithfulness of doing His will. Be persevering—it may be the last key on the ring that opens the door. Hanging on one second longer than your competition makes you a winner. Become famous for finishing important, difficult tasks.
If you’re tempted to stop, just think of Brahms, who took seven long years to compose his famous lullaby because he kept falling asleep at the piano—just kidding, but it did take him that long to finish. I agree with Woodrow Wilson when he said, "I would rather fail in a cause that will ultimately succeed than succeed in a cause that will ultimately fail." Nearly all failures result from people quitting too soon. "And let us not get tired of doing what is right, for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't get discouraged and give up" (Gal. 6:9, LB). It takes the hammer of persistence to drive the nail of success.
Many of life's failures were people who didn’t realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote, "When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, until it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the time and place that the tide will turn". The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide.
You uncover opportunity by applying persistence to possibilities. When you get right down to the root meaning of the word succeed, you find it simply means to persevere and follow through. Any diamond will tell you it was just a hunk of coal that stuck to its job and made good under pressure.
The road to success runs uphill so don't expect to break any speed records. Impatience is costly. Your greatest mistakes will happen because of impatience. Most people fail simply because they're impatient and they cannot join the beginning with the end. Keep patiently doing God's will if you want Him to do for you all He has promised.
"The determined soul will do more with a rusty monkey wrench than a loafer will accomplish with all the tools in a mechanic's shop" (Rupert Hughs). The power to hold on in spite of everything, to endure—this is the winner’s quality. To endure is greater than to dare. The difference between the impossible and the possible lies simply in your determination.