Learning Experience vs. Failure

Sometimes projects just don't go my way or at least the way I imagined it would go.  It's been a week of those kind of projects but I've decided instead of letting them be failures I'm going to think of them as learning experiences.  To me the difference between a learning experience and failure is whether I give up (failure) or look for a solution and move forward (learning experience)  Here's just a little of what I'm talking about.

Set up our borrowed humongous 10 foot, 800 lights pre-lit artificial tree the day after Thanksgiving and only about half the lights work.  Common problem, right?  Bob fiddled with it and got a few more working but not enough to make it look good.  Got permission from my sister (who owns the tree) to strip the lights and put on our own strands.  We both thought it would be a job but fairly simple and maybe an hour.....

(that's 800 lights about half of a garage trash can)

Both of us working on it for 3 1/2 hours got it done but not without major frustration, questioning why we were doing it and thoughts of cancelling Christmas dancing through our heads. HOWEVER we didn't give up! 

Second example this week, I'm working on a desk for the kids.  Yes, another DESK!  Got it primed twice because it's laminate and the paint needs something to stick to.  Then I picked out a soft gray for the actual paint color.  This week it got two coats of "gray" paint before Bob asked me if I was done priming it.

(example of the primer I put on kids desk because I didn't take a pic)

                                      

(two coats of actual paint and several hours later.)

          
Yep, the paint color is horrible and almost the exact color of the primer.  Funny thing is I knew this after the first coat but convinced myself if I just keep painting the "not gray-gray" would turn gray.  Chemistry was not on my side and it took Bob pointing that our for me to admit it.  Still not a failure though because instead of giving up I poured some black paint into my half used quart of "not gray - gray" and ended up with a decent color.

I'm a work in progress along with my projects and constantly learning or choosing to learn instead of giving up.  It's also a good reminder of how blessed I am when these are my concerns.  I have people all around me facing real difficulties in life.  Struggling spiritually, emotionally and physically.  My prayer is that when faced with real difficulties they can all be used for a learning experience.