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A reflection and prayer to start the day with the Rev Dr Craig Gardiner.

Good morning.

Today at Wales’ National Eisteddfod, judges will reveal the winner of the ‘Welsh Learner of the Year’ competition. This year’s contest was launched back on St David’s Day, and since then contestants have been gradually whittled down to just four finalists. They come from different parts of Britain and Ireland, with varying experiences of life, but they each share a passion for learning something new.

Whoever gets the prize, every competitor is already a winner. Fluency, and the opportunity it offers to engage with others will be its own reward. But to reach that goal, each learner will have struggled day by day with vocabulary and grammar. They will have practised linguistic mutations and idiomatic expressions, over and over by themselves. And even as they’ve persevered in private, eventually there comes the day of daring it all in public, speaking beyond the classroom, having conversations with a stranger. With that comes the risk of getting it wrong.

My father used to say, ‘whoever never made a mistake never made much in life’. And that’s just as true for language learning as it is for playing an instrument, hitting a ball, putting up shelves or baking a cake. But it’s also true in our daily struggle to be kinder, more patient, more generous and forgiving people. Of course, we will not always get it right, but as St Paul told the churches of Galatia ‘we should not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.’

Whoever wins the accolade of ‘Welsh Learner of the Year’, congratulations to you for reaping the harvest of your hard work and perseverance. And for the rest of us, whatever our new challenges and opportunities:

Dear God grant us a sustaining passion
when the times are tough,
may we not grow weary
but keep on doing good
and maybe, God, today
will bring its own reward
for never giving up.
Amen