While I do not see children playing this game now, when I was a child we played Ring Around the Rosie. The poem went like this: “Ring around the rosies; Pockets full of posies; Ashes, ashes, all fall down!”

When we got to the end, we would all fall down on the ground and then get up laughing. While some attribute this to a macabre ritual from the Bubonic plague days, in actuality there is evidence that it dates back to more playful origins in Europe. Needless to say, when we recited this as children we were not thinking about any plagues!

I have taken a lot of falls in my life–both figuratively and literally. There have been sprained ankles, broken elbows, paint chips embedded in my forehead when I fell and hit the corner of a wall, and more. But the falls that you cannot see are probably the ones that have left the most marks on me. The failure to meet someone’s expectations, the breaking of a promise, the crashing of a ministry I loved, and more, litter my life. Some of the falls were a result of my own carelessness and others were things out of my control.

There is a magnet I keep on my refrigerator. It reads: “You fall, you rise, you make mistakes, you live, you learn. You’re human, not perfect. You’ve been hurt, but not destroyed. Think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive—to breathe, to think, to enjoy, and to pursue the things you love. Sometimes there is sadness in our journey, but there is also much joy. We must keep putting one foot in front of the other even when we hurt, for we never know what blessings are waiting just around the bend.” –Anonymous

When we fall we have choices of how we respond. Do we learn valuable lessons? Do we dust ourselves off and move on? Do we allow someone to help and lift us up? Or, do we stay on the ground and wallow endlessly in the pain? Do we blame everyone else for our fall, sometimes neglecting to see our role in it?

We all fall. After all, we live in a fallen world–one that was perfect until Satan entered the picture. But we do not need to wallow in the fall. God has given us everything we need to rise up and overcome the hurts, the disappointments, and the agony of falling.

Micah 7:8 says, “Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.” In Psalm 37:24 we are reminded that God holds our hands even though we fall. “Though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand.”

We all fall. But the Lord will help lift us up so that we can continue on our journey and grow closer to him.

More verses to reassure us that God has us when we falter and fall. Psalm. 37:4; 2 Corininthians 4:8-9; Proverbs 24:16; Isaiah 43:2