If change is going to happen it will happen because of perseverance.  I thought I would share this story with you about perseverance by
John Maxwell.

 

Running Past Failure

As a small child, Vonetta (Jeffrey) Flowers dreamed about being in the Olympics. She ran everywhere she went, and gained a reputation among her school friends for being quick. At age nine, Vonetta learned she had special talent. While trying out for an inner-city track club in her hometown of Birmingham, she shocked coaches by posting the best sprint time

for Jonesboro Elementary School – running faster than boys two years older than she was!

 

Vonetta’s immense talent carried her to the University of Alabama-Birmingham on a track-and-field scholarship. While at the university, she continued to pursue her goal of gaining a spot on the Olympic team. She practiced meticulously to perfect her stride, spent hours in the weight room adding strength, and ran grueling intervals to shave seconds

off her sprint times. Thanks to her combination of talent and discipline, Vonetta ended her college career as a 7-time All-American, competing in the 100 meter and 200 meter sprints, long jump, triple jump, heptathlon, and relays.

 

With her college career finished, Vonetta set her sights on the 1996 Olympics. Unfortunately, she failed to qualify for the team, running slightly behind the leaders. The failure stung, but Vonetta was determined not to give up. She found a job as an assistant coach and continued

her regimen of training.

 

For the next four years, Vonetta put her body through punishing workouts with an eye on the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. In her words, “I devoted countless hours to lifting weights, eating right, and staying mentally tough. I knew that my time as an athlete was coming to an end, and I’d hoped that the 2000 Olympic trials would prove to be my year to finally find out what

it’s like to be an Olympian.”

 

In June 2000, Vonetta lined up again to run at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Unfortunately, Vonetta placed 13th, and she failed to make the Olympic squad. Although one of the fastest women in America, she wasn’t in the select group to represent the United States in Sydney. After 17 years of training, she had come up empty in her quest for the Olympics.

Two days after her second painful failure in the Olympic Trials, Vonetta’s husband spotted an advertisement for tryouts for the United States Olympic bobsled team. He convinced her to go to the tryouts. Growing up in the South, Vonetta was not accustomed to cold and snow, and she knew next to nothing about bobsledding. However, at the tryouts her unusual blend

of speed and strength proved to be ideal qualities for a brakewoman (the person who pushes  the bobsled to give it initial momentum and then hops in with the driver). Vonetta was chosen  for the team.

 

Vonetta’s decision to join the bobsled team came with a price – two more years of a strict diet,  sore muscles, and countless hours dedicated to attaining peak physical fitness. It also meant  delaying her dream to be a mom. However, her years of perseverance paid off. Not only did Vonetta achieve her lifelong goal of competing in the Olympics, but she also became the first African-American to win a gold medal in the winter Olympics!

 

That is a wonderful story.  Vonetta persevered. She kept believing, she kept training, and she kept running until she finally caught up with success.

 

Let me encourage you to keep on keeping on and the change your looking for will start showing up day by day.  Don’t quit, PERSEVERE.

 

James 1:3-4 (NIV)   because you know that the testing of your faith develops  perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.