Wisdom 2013

With another year gone by, our sincerest hope is 2013's lessons coming to fruition and meaningful application in its successor. There is no feat worse than to live and not learn from it. So what have we learned?

I, for one, have learned that confiding in my dad is a sweet practice for us both. For me, because it lightens my burden and invited sympathy and advice. For him, because in his bosom stirs the noble calling of every father to protect and guide his daughter. And in so opening my heart to my dad, it draws us both closer to one another. 

A lesson that came with much difficulty to me was learning to push myself harder to make more of my life--to strive towards my potential, to press on towards the goal of the upward call of Christ. It is so much easier just to float along where life's current has you instead of moving on towards better things.

With grace and wisdom from the Lord, I hope to keep on with both of these lessons in the new year. May this be a year characterized by faithfulness, especially to the start-of-year sentiments which inspire so many of us to resolve to be better. 

And finally, there is no better wisdom than that which is gained from the experience of others. Those of you who kindly shared your 2013 lesson with me, thank you. These are the responses you gave.

 
    
Decision-making

• Even if something hurts, if the outcome will be valuable and worth it, do it. 
• Be OK with my choices and sometimes things just work out. 
• Follow through with made decisions. 

Dependence upon God

• With all the options my life could take, I doubted whether my commitment to Jesus would stand the test. But I remembered the verse that says, 

Psalm 139

Where can I go from your spirit, where can I flee from your presence?

• The more you depend on God, the better life feels. We had financial difficulty. God did not let us down. Praise God! 
• I've learned this year to set my hopes only on the Lord, that He is the light and the way, and whoever follows Him will never live in darkness. 
• Always trust God's timing. 
• Lean on God with all your heart and not on my own understanding. Everything is in His hands! 
• Try to trust God with everything and give all of the worries to Him. 
• Trust God, not yourself. 
• This year I really practiced in my patience and trust with what goes on in life, and what is and is not controllable. 
• Learning much about trusting God with change. 

Excellence

• If you're not scared to death, you're not challenging yourself enough. If I'm content, then I'm not being challenged enough.
• If you want something badly, you have to work for it because in the end it pays off. 
• The greatest lesson I have learned that will help me live and love to the fullest is to be excellent in all I do. 

Faith

• I learned the importance of having strong faith behind the scenes, not just when everyone sees you.

 
Faithfulness

• If we are faithful in the little, He will really give us more.

Fellowship

• Don't lose touch with the body of Christ and no excuse is ever good enough to get you away from good fellowship. 

Finances

• I've learned to definitely not live outside my means.

Gratitude

• I'm just grateful that we have a healthy growing baby with a strong heart beat.
• I learned to be grateful and happy all the time. 
• Be thankful for each and every person that ever crossed your path in life.  
• Appreciate all the things my family and friends have done for me since I've been living on my own this semester.

How We Relate to Others

• One thing I learned this year was to be careful to be too quick to judge people. I am constantly reminded when I make a judgment on someone and then am pleasantly surprised when they do something great. It has taught me that it is better to see the good in someone, than the bad.
• Not everyone is willing to listen to your opinion or advice... Sometimes it's better to keep it to yourself. 
• Wait when angry and not judge. 
• It's worth going out of the way to love someone! 
• Family is always the truest and they have your back no matter what, over and over. 

Living Presently

• I was reminded to appreciate every moment, never take a day for granted, and to rest in Christ.
• One lesson that keeps being impressed upon me is the reality of the spiritual life truly being a daily battle...the whole "not resting on yesterday's spirituality to get me through today" mentality...my temptation is to always be letting my guard down. 
• Treasure the moments you have to live. You don't know when something can go wrong.

Love

• What is useful for living is loving people no matter what their choices are.  
• God taught me this year that love starts with Jesus.
• What I've learned is recorded in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. It's something I've always been short of and continue to learn to practice. 
  1 Corinthians 13: 1-3 
  If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

 
Miscellaneous

• Words to live by: Amos 3:7 and Malachi 4:5

Amos 3:7

For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.

Malachi 4:5

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.

Patience

• What I learned is patience fueled by kindness. This has helped me to yield better results as a manager and human being.
• Learned patience.  

Practical

• I learned that it's a good idea to know how to be flexible and inventive in the kitchen, unless I have time to shop.
• Learned to make a perfect seafood cioppino.

Time 

• Use my time wisely because our days are numbered!
• Life is too short to waste doing anything you hate. 

Wisdom

• I've learned that I have much more to learn!