Value: Perseverance and Overcoming Setbacks

Life has its difficult moments and setbacks. Things do not always go as planned or as expected. Teaching our children to bounce back up after a setback and to persevere at a task until it is accomplished can be one of the most important skills for success that we impart to them.

Text: Genesis 26:12-33

Method: Read the verses in a language that everyone understands. Interject questions to probe reactions during the reading.

(Ask: why did Yishaq’s success bother Avimelekh so much? What is envy or jealousy? Have you ever felt bad when a friend or classmate was successful or had a new toy? What could be a better response?—Being happy at the other person’s success.)

Ask: How do you think Yishaq felt about leaving the wells that his servants had dug? What was Yishaq’s reaction to the setback? He built another well and moved on and built another well until it was accepted. He did not give up because digging wells was very important to his survival. He continued digging. Sometimes things don’t go the way we expect them to. Yet, when we are convinced of the importance of what we are doing we will persist until we accomplish our goal.

In addition when we have the confidence that we can achieve our goals we will persist until we do.

Note: Yishaq’s persistence did not lead him to confrontation! He would rather dig the well somewhere else than enter into a protracted confrontation with the Philistines. Ask: Are there times where we should persist even if it would lead to confrontation? What is the difference between perseverance and stubbornness? (Stubbornness is keeping at the same thing without learning from the mistakes. Perseverance means keeping at the task, while learning from the setbacks how to better accomplish the task.)

Ask: Did you ever get a test or essay back from the teacher with all red corrections marked on it? How did you feel? How can that "setback" be used to grow?

Relate a setback in your own life and how you persevered to eventually succeed.

If it’s worth doing, it’s worth persevering until the job gets done.

History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats. (B.C. Forbes; in _A Second Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul_, Canfield and Hansen, p. 251)

In the continuation of the story, Avimelekh eventually comes to realize that God is with Yishaq and that Yishaq is very successful. He made a covenant with Yishaq that they would not harm one another. They feasted together and Avimelekh left in peace.

Eventually Avimelekh made peace with Yishaq and no longer envied him. Although he was behaving in a self-interested way, he was forced to realize and accept Yishaq’s prosperity. After Yishaq was harassed by Avimelekh, being forced to move several times, and after Yishaq suffered the setbacks of having to abandon the wells and his fields, Yishaq's success in every place that he went and his overall prosperity made Avimelekh realize that Yishaq was "here to stay." Avimelekhs's realization that Yishaq could not be defeated led him to request a covenant with Yishaq.

Yishaq, in a non-confrontational way continued digging the wells until eventually he was accepted by Avimelekh. (It is interesting to note that the region referred to in this section is in the present-day Gaza strip. Perhaps if we persevere and continue to succeed and bring prosperity to the region our enemies will eventually realize the benefits of pursuing a true peace.)

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Some examples of perseverance and overcoming setbacks:

Thomas Edison was probably the greatest inventor in American history. When he first attended school in Port Huron, Michigan, his teachers complained that he was "too slow" and hard to handle. As a result, Edison’s mother decided to take her son out of school and teach him at home. The young Edison was fascinated by science. At the age of 10 he had already set up his first chemistry laboratory. Edison’s inexhaustible energy and genius (which he reportedly defined as "1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration") eventually produced in his lifetime more than 1,300 inventions.

When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he tried over 2,000 experiments before he got it to work. A young reporter asked him how it felt to fail so many times. He said, "I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2,000-step process.

When Pablo Casals reached 95, a young reporter threw him the following question. "Mr. Casals, you are 95 and the greatest cellist that ever lived. Why do you still practice six hours a day?" Mr. Casals answered, "Because I think I’m making progress.

When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, it did not ring off the hook with potential backers. After making a demonstration call, President Rutherford Hayes said, "That’s an amazing invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?"

John Milton became blind at age 44. Sixteen years later he wrote the classic _Paradise Lost_.

After years of progressive hearing loss, by age 46 German composer Ludwig von Beethoven had become completely deaf. Nevertheless, he wrote his greatest music, including five symphonies during those later years.

(From _A Second Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul_, Canfield and Hansen, pp. 251-256)