Shaking Off Rejection and Failure

S- Mark 6:11 - "And if anyplace will not welcome you or listen to you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave."

O - Though I can't say that I fully understand this passage, it seems to me that this passage is about handling rejection and failure. The disciples had a mandate to go and preach, and sometimes they were received and sometimes rejected. As we go through life, we will each encounter rejection and failure. To be successful, we can't let it cling to us, burden us, or weigh us down. We need to truly move on, though not in judgement as this verse implies. Often the rejection we experience is not a rejection of Christ, but just a rejection of us ... and that is ok. Not everyone needs to like us or approve of us.

A - I will shake off the dust of rejection and failure and trust God to continue His work of grace in my life and in the lives of others. I can not control others nor do I want to, nor do I need to be controlled by their choices or reactions to me.

P - Lord, I want to travel light, shaking off any dust of rejection and failure, any weight and sin that so easily tries to trip me up and slow me down. Help me to move foward, not carrying any rejection or regrets. Help me to simply take each day as it comes. Help me make the most of every opportunity to be your child and walk in your way. All I ask is that you never leave me nor forsake me and that you would work all things together for good, the sunlight and the shadows, the blessings and the challenges, my strengths and my weakenesses, my mountains and my valleys.