Never give into discouragement

My 14 year old son has been working on a major project to complete for his science class. It has been weeks in the works and due for final presentation this afternoon.

Fascinated with dry ice bombs a few months ago, and how adding a little water to dry ice in a closed compartment causes CO2 to vaporize, build pressure, and then explode its container in a ferocious blast, he decided to build a dry ice propelled car. This was a very ambitious project for it required him to design and build a vehicle plus a gas chamber to contain the dry ice explosion that would propel the car forward.
Last Saturday was the big-push day to finish the work.

His equipment was built and ready for experiments to be run. But the day got off to a bad start when the pressure chamber slipped out of his hands and crashed to the floor breaking into many pieces. Weeks of work busted in a second. Oh, he was disappointed. I feared he was going to give up and quit.

I wanted him to grow spiritually out of this and learn from experience that success will come if you don’t give up. Success doesn’t always come easily. So mom and I cheered him up, went to the store for more parts, and got him back in business within an hour or so. The speed of the fix-up was alone an answered prayer.

But an hour later, the chamber slips again and busts. This was not good. Tyler was absolutely crushed in spirit.

The experiments had not been going well. The car hadn’t move a millimeter with the first set of explosions. And one of his best friends who was at our house working with him as a partner on the project had quit helping because he thought the project was “too much work.”

Hopelessness hung heavy in the air.

I shut the bedroom door and had a short talk with my Tyler, my son. I told him that some projects in life take a lot of work to get right. But that’s okay. God gives us everything we need to succeed. And if we persevere and not lose our faith, we’ll figure out what we need to do and be able to follow through.

Back to the store we went, got the needed parts, and fixed his equipment once again.

We analyzed his pressure chamber and car to figure out what needed to change to get that car to move. After a few modifications, he experimented again.

With hope and confidence restored, he cheerily proceeded.

Finally, a hint of success.

One explosion moved the car a few inches, then a foot, then four feet. Amazing! He was ebullient, jumping through the roof with enthusiasm. It had been a long series of weeks and then hours that day getting to the point of finally seeing some success, but his hard and determined effort paid off.

As a parent preparing a child for life in the big world out there, I was so glad he had not caved into despair. That was my prayer all day! He learned a valuable life-lesson that will benefit him for decades to come.

Stick to it! Don’t give up. Overcome the obstacles. God gives you what you need.
Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “The devotion of thought to an honest achievement makes the achievement possible. Exceptions only confirm this rule, proving that failure is occasioned by a too feeble faith.”

If there is a daunting project facing you at the moment, you have what you need too.

Reasons to feel discouraged are not uncommon in the human mind, but they are foreign to the divine Mind. The more we rely upon God for help and the less we listen to the limited material sense of things, the sooner we find solutions to problems we face and the more certain is our success.

The "Dry Ice Bomb" car!