It's amazing to me just how quickly your life can change; how with one decision, everything about your life can be completely altered. Sometimes that alteration can bring a negative outcome, but then there are other times when your life is bettered and enriched simply because of a spontaneous choice that you made. That's where I am. I look back on the past two years and am utterly amazed at the path my life has taken and feel totally blessed to find myself where I am today. It's been an amazing two years and I can honestly say, in hindsight, that I wouldn't change a thing. The lessons have been painful and eye-opening, but worth it. Completely worth it. Not assuming that anyone else will learn from my life, let me share what I've learned.
1. Change is never easy and it scares the crap out of you most of the time, but there isn't anything that can happen to you that you can't overcome or endure. So, embrace it. Don't shy away from the unknown because you're afraid. You never know what could be on the other side. It may not feel like you have the courage or strength to get to the other side, but if you push through the fear and uncertainty.....you WILL make it to the other side. And not to sound to elementary, but you can't possibly know or anticipate what's on the other side until you, yourself, are on the other side. So embrace change.
2. Learn from every person and situation you come in contact with. People come in and out of our lives every day and no matter who they are or how long you know them, they can teach you something about yourself or people in general. Some people may simply come into your life for a season, to help you grow or push you outside of your comfort zone. Some people come into your life and unexpectedly change it forever. The point is, you never know. So embrace people.
3. You can't get along with everyone. We're all different, with different personalities and quirks, and that's okay. Different isn't bad, but different is different. No matter how hard you try, there are just some people that you are not going to "jive" with. That doesn't mean that you're ugly or hateful to anyone, it just means that some people are destined to be our acquaintances, some will be our buddies, and some will be our friends. But no matter what, we learn from people. We learn how to adapt, we learn how to treat others, and we learn how not to treat others. We learn things about ourselves that we might otherwise have never known and we learn just who we are in relation to other people. The point is, you can't get along with everyone so don't beat yourself up trying to. Live your life loving people, but know that not everyone is going to love you back and not everyone will even want your love. Love them anyway. Loving people doesn't always mean that you love to be around them or that you even like them, but it does mean you extend grace to them.
4. Life is too short to quibble over things that do not matter. What matters is living a life that pleases Jesus. The things that I do or don't do aren't predicated by the opinions or viewpoints of other people. My life choices are made with one persons approval and opinion in mind and His opinion is ultimately all that matters. Not everyone will agree with the choices I make and that's okay. They don't have to agree, but my life is not dictated by other people. In the same manner, I may not agree with the choices other people make, but again....it's not up to me. So, don't live your life trying to please other people because you never will. Inevitabley, you will let someone down. It's a fact of life. All you can do is live your life in a way that would be pleasing to the One who gives you life at all.
5. We have been given a limited amount of time on this Earth and it is up to us to use the time we've been given wisely. It's very easy to get into this comfortable state of mind and simply coast along in life, waiting for things to happen, and simply taking up space. I've been there the past couple of months. I have this idea in my mind of what my life should look like and because my current life looks nothing like that right now, I feel the need to simply sit around and wait for it to morph into what I want it to be. Two things I've learned for sure: my idea of what my life should look like is irrelevant, and what my life journey looks like is ultimately not up to me at all. I have found myself recently just coasting, stagnant and purposeless and I don't like it. So I make a choice. I make a choice to live; to invest in other people; and to use the time and talents I've been given. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen, but in the meantime I might as well do something with my life. I don't think you're really living until you do that anyway.
I can call those pearls of wisdom, but only because they're mine. There have been other lessons I've had to learn that were more introspective and painful and there have been others that were superficial and enjoyable, but I've learned something from all of them. I've grown more over the past two years than I have in my entire life so far. That's a good thing.
I'm thankful.
I'm blessed.
I'm encouraged.
