Reason #771

Lauren sent me a picture of us from 7 years ago. The good thing about it was that we haven’t changed a bit. Well, my hair has gotten a little longer and hers a little shorter. Aside from that, we look the same. In fact, we both pointed out that not only do we still have the same articles of clothing that we were wearing in the picture, we still wear them all the time. Both things I am thankful for. Well, actually, three things. I’m thankful I haven’t aged much since college, I am thankful I can still fit into my clothes from college, and I am thankful that I’ve had sweet friends who have been there for me over the years.

 

College was such an incredible time in my life. High school, not so much, and so I was really excited to get out of small town Texas and meet new people. I was looking forward to having a clean slate to start with. In high school, I wasn’t cool. I wasn’t an outcast, and my high school years weren’t terrible, but I sure wasn’t Ms. Popular. Really, that was fine with me. That way, I could be myself and not have to look back on my high school years with regret. And so I held out for college. I wanted to make new friends. I wanted to find a group of people who I connected with. A group of people who had the same mindset and actions as I did. And let me just say, college did exactly that for me. Everyone showed up with a fresh start, no one knew who anyone else was, and everyone got to define themselves in the way they wanted to. You didn’t go into college with a label. It was like being the new kid, except everyone was the new kid, and you got to decide who you were going to be.

 

I don’t have too many regrets about college. Really, I just have two, and I think that’s pretty good, don’t you? But as I looked at that 7 year old picture of myself, I thought about how much I wish I could go back and do more during my college years. I thought about how much I wish future Brittnye could have sent college Brittnye a letter about what the next 7 years held. But college Brittnye had no idea, and like the rest of the world, was going to have to figure that out one day at time.

 

On Sunday, we talked about wisdom. How does one get wisdom? We came to the conclusion that we often gain wisdom from learning by experience, which is usually done the hard way. Sure, with age comes wisdom. But the more days you have, the more opportunities you have to make choices that you learn from. And so who can blame young people for not knowing, right? You just do the best you can with the knowledge you have at the time. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t. The good thing about that is that you’ll learn either way. The bad thing about that is you have a 50% chance of learning it the hard way.

 

Yet God’s word says if we’ll just ask for wisdom, He’ll give it to us. That’s it, we just have to ask. And so college Brittnye asked for wisdom and then ignored it when it was given to her. Mistake #1. Having learned the hard way, it’s not wise to ignore God’s wisdom, trust me. Yet God, in all His wisdom, goes before us and prepares the way regardless. Sometimes that way is not a whole lot of fun. Sometimes it’s a whole lot of work. Yet if you trust God during the consequences of your unwise decisions, you realize that He’ll work it out for the best. After all, wisdom can be granted at any time, even if it seems like it’s too late.

 

So how does one keep from learning the hard way, you ask? How do you gain wisdom without experiences? By asking God and then doing what He says. Because God does not give unwise instructions. His word is the preventative measure, in fact. And by following God’s word, we’ll always make the best decision. It may not be the easiest, it may not be the one we would have initially chosen, but it will be the right one every time.

 

#771 -  Because His word is the preventative measure from having to “learn the hard way.”

 

"Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light on my path." - Psalm 119:105