Lessons Learned

Life's most precious moments are not the most adventurous, rather they are the moments spent with the most precious people!

This was my twitter status today. Seems to be my life lesson in this past bit. Over a year ago I had a older friend tell me I needed to get out and have more fun. I was at a low point at that time and took her advice and gave it a try for the past year. It was fun, I found a great group of young friends, who I love to pieces, but I realized it's not who I am as a person. However, what I learned from this experience is far more beneficial to me. I learned to be who I am, I learned drama just isn't my thing, and I learned that there are a lot of people in this world who have no idea why they do the things they do.

Being true to yourself is one of the greatest things a human being can do in this life. If you're always trying to be someone you're not, always trying to be who others want you to be, you'll never find true joy in this lifetime. Being yourself is a lot harder than it seems, most of us fleetingly think "that's just who I am" that person can suck it up, but do we ever actually not care what they think of us. Words like that pang us, they are an ever deeper digging knife in our sides. We think back to others judgements of us, and if we think about it too often, we start to believe those nasty things. Things like: you're useless, worthless, nothing without a boyfriend, irresponsible, worrier, etc... The list could go on forever. The key is to self check. When someone says something of the sorts to you, ask yourself, is this who I am? If it is, and others find it dissatisfying maybe look at working to make a change in your life, but if it isn't true, dismiss it from your mind and move on. I guess the key to accepting oneself is to be self aware. Pay attention to how your actions affect others, pay attention to how people react to you, make changes, and move on. Ultimately, we are not on this earth to please people anyway, we are on this earth to be stewards of God, and the best way to reach others is to be so self aware that you become increasingly better at knowing how to approach a world of very different individuals.

Drama, well, we all have a little bit in our lives, however, it is probably the most unnecessary thing on the face of this planet. We are responsible for ourselves, only ourselves. If a friend shares something with you, it's not your job to fix their problem. Some people want you to solve their problems but we can't do that either. We do them no good by telling them exactly how they should deal with their current predicament instead, listen, quietly, and pray. Isn't this what God tells us to do. He wants us to each choose him on our own, we need to be ready, we need to be willing and we'll do much better listening & praying than telling them how they should live their lives.

People need to make decisions for themselves and in our "how to" society it's becoming an increasing problem that people have no idea why they do what they do. "So & so told me to" & "I wasn't told what to do" are so commonly used as excuses for people's poor actions. These two phrases have no ownership for that person. The truth is, we all have choices everyday, we all have common sense, and if we don't, we all have someone around us who models how to make good choices. We can't blame our friends for giving us bad advice, we can't blame our friends for our choice to be involved in a poor situation. It was our choice and choices have consequences, so look further into your decisions and realize what the consequences may be before you make that choice.

It's been a year of learning but with God's grace & compassion we will all make it through. Feel blessed when you are given a negative consequence and take the knowledge and never do it again, feel blessed when given a positive consequence as that is when you are being true to yourself. Precious people make precious moments. Cherish & accept each person where they are for who they are.