Bowling

Bowling is a game of consistency. If one person, after getting a strike, could just throw the same way again and again, they'd have a perfect score every game. It seems so simple, almost like a choice rather than skill or just luck.
But it's not that simple. There's the speed, the timing, the step, the release. All these things have to be perfect in order to bowl the same way, and that's hard. Factors change such as arm strength, finger flexibility and slickness, maybe even some missteps here and there. Even for a perfect game, the bowler hasn't thrown exactly perfectly the same way each time.
My perfect game each time is beating my top score (which currently stands at 157). Today I played two games, and couldn't even pass 100. I got two marks the entire two games I played. I got a strike my second frame, but after that I was shooting 9's, 8's, and below. It depressed me, but I was determined to do better my second game.
Of course, my second game was pretty terrible as well, and I ended up pretty much giving up at the end. Over and over in my head I kept saying Just bowl like you use to, choose to bowl accurately and strongly. And every time I got up I'd mess up, and fall short of the mark. Trying to rationalize this in my head, I'd keep believing I could come next time around. But I'd keep failing.
I can stand to be in the midst of people better than me, people beating me, even people mocking me for my score. What I can't take is trying my hardest at something and not being able to do better than or close to my personal best. I didn't come close, and I hated that.
But how do I battle that? How do I battle any problems I face that, after trying as hard as I can again and again I keep failing at? The reality is, I'm never going to be perfect, just like I probably won't ever get a perfect game (if I even get past 157 someday!). But does that stop me from bowling again? No at all, I come back just as motivated to beat my score the next time I bowl. The reality of failure shouldn't goad us into giving up and not trying anymore. We have to keep on keeping on, as God intended us to. And when we ask for His help, He'll always be there to straighten our stance and help us aim towards the center.