Life's Pathways

It has been nearly a month since my last post. Time goes by very quickly! I am here though with a new thought in mind.

The other day we went to a friend's house. While we were all sitting around talking the host told us he would be speaking at a Junior/Senior banquet and asked us to give him some input. He asked us to tell him things we would have wished we'd known around 16, 17, 18 years of age that we would have done differently had we just known. With my being only 19 I did not give much of an input because I am not really out of that age range just yet but it was very interesting to listen to everybody else give their input. I was truly amazed at some of the things people said. Now before I go on let me say this- I do not agree or disagree with any of their thoughts. I merely have my own opion on how they apply in my own life because I believe depending on a certain individual's life some, all, or none of these ideas will apply.

Here are some of the things people said:
1) Listen to your parents more
2) Don't think you have to find that one person to spend the rest of your life with right out of HS
3) Don't use credit cards
4) Give time to learn who you are before you start dating and bring someone else into your life
5) Don't have sex before you are married
6) Do what you set out to do in life before you get married and have kids because you may not get the chance to do what you wanted.
7) Don't stop going to college until you are finished because there is a big chance you won't go back and finish what you started.
8) Be content with where you are in life and don't think you have to live like your parents right when you get married.
9) Don't settle for the first person who comes along. Be sure he/she is everything you wanted
10) Continue to be moldable. Your life will not always turn out the way you planned for it to.

There were many more ideas and thoughts but those were just a few. Many people wished they would have done things differently. As I sat there listening to what everyone said and began looking back on my highschool/beginning college years I thought to myself, "I don't really regret anything that I did." Now, maybe it's because I really haven't hit that point in life yet where I really begin wishing I would have done something differently. The only thing I maybe wish I would have done more of is listened to my parents more. In doing that I would have saved myself alot of trouble.

People say all things happen for a reason and God is in control of everything. I agree with that statement but I also believe there is a type of 'loop hole' for lack of a better word. You reap what you sow. If you do wrong things in life it will eventually come back to haunt you. Now, if you do something wrong, whatever wrong it is, it did not happen because God intended for you to do it. It happened because you took it upon yourself to make the wrong decision. He is not in complete control of the decisions you make because He gave each and every one of us a free will. Now, you will bear the consequences of your actions. At the same time I believe God can use the decisions you made -no matter what they were- for his good and for his glory. When things happen for a reason it is not always because God allowed it to happen and He has a reason for it. Things also happen for reasons because we took it upon ourselves to make those things come to pass. Does that make any sense at all? It does in my mind but sometimes my words get jumbled together and end up becoming incoherent.

Anyway, the day after spending time at this friend's house I was talking to my mom about how I felt about it. I said, "Looking back, I don't regret anything I did. Is that wrong?" I continued by saying," Maybe because I am not completely out of that age range yet but I think everything that happened was a type of learing experience. Without those things happening in my life I would not be the person I am today and I am content with the person I am and continue to become."

I know who I am. I knew who I was my Junior year of highschool. I realize that I will continue to change and God may not want me to do everything in life that I set out and plan to do but why would I regret the things that made me the person I am today? I know I am not perfect and God still deals with my heart when it comes to the things I fail him in but just the fact of knowing that He is there and He is guiding my footsteps gives me reassurance.

Until next time,
ActionJacksontheAngloSaxon