To attract parents to sent their children to their daycare centers, some kindergartens put on aids to promote their curricula saying, “Don’t let your children fall behind or fail at the starting line. Our learning programs will equip your kids to be successful in the future.” This is only one of  the advertising slogans used by kindergartens or children’s after-school programs to promote their schools. It is a good start if a child is well educated at the early age of his life, but winning at the starting line doesn’t assure a child is successful at the finish line.

David, second kind of Israel, defeated the Philistine giant Goliath when he was a young boy. But he didn’t become king of his country Israel until at the age of 30. In the period of around thirteen years David was hiding and fleeing from King Saul who was jealous of him and kept hunting down for him as well as fighting against his enemies. David indeed became a great king of Israel eventually and won the favor of God, but at the same time he went through several dangers, hardships and obstacles.

True success must taste the bitterness of failure. Failure is often a stepping stone for success.