A string of Pearls

I was wondering today, being 28 years old now, if by some magical force I was given 10 minutes to sit down with my 18 year old self, what little pearls of wisdom would I so have cherished to have around my neck back then….even if while I rolled them between my fingers I didn’t fully understand their value quite yet.
I have restricted myself to 10.
I’m sure I could string more together.

· I know you hate hearing it, but really really, for so many reasons, the most wonderful years of your life are while you are school.
· The thing you will miss the most when you are grown up is your December holiday.
· The person you are at 18 is not the person you are at 21, or the person you are at 25. You will start to get more comfortable with who you are by then though.
· You can never grow inside your comfort zone. You will hate it. You will wish it away…but be brave. The absence of fear means you’re too comfortable.
· Not all your dreams will come true. This is not a license to stop dreaming however.
· You can never talk to God enough.
· As you move from place to place and season to season, make a point to keep investing in a few treasured friendships. Make an effort to call them, make an effort to write to them. Nobody expects you to do this everyday, or every week even. Collect them like gems in a crown, acknowledge what a beautiful thing they were in your immediate world at one stage, and believe that whatever distance separates you cannot prevent their continued contribution to your life.
· You are NOT as fat as you think you are.
· You can't explain being angry, or any emotion really. Mostly it is irrational. Non-sensical. But you still feel it. You can't deny it.
· A relationship should never be more work than it is worth.

On Wisdom

Here's a thought...

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

James 1:5

Perhaps seeking Wisdom from God is less about becoming wiser and more about the process of seeking God...

Perhaps, when we actively seek Him, and engage him, the Wisdom we seek is second prize.

Perhaps it is simply that in the presence of God, wisdom is superfluous.

One Prayer

I'll forget this if I don't put it in black and white tonight.

At the urging of the Spirit I have been encouraged to make this words of a song my prayer for 2010.

It is no secret to the people close to me that I am launching into an adventure, a journey that is as yet unchartered or itinerised yet it's intimate meanderings are already known by God. He has been calling me gently for the last few months to leave what is comfortable, to leave what is safe, to leave the support of friends and mentors and to adventure. I do it with a heart that is both expectant and excited but equally terrified.

I have a prayer for the year that the Spirit stirred up in my heart tonight. It was echoed in the words of a song and I wanted to put it out there;

So that I may come back to it and remember at the end of difficult days,

So that you may pray it with me.

So that when 2011 starts and can look back and give glory to my Father as I tell the story of how He answered.

This is my prayer:

That God would heal my heart and make it clean

Open up my eyes to the things unseen

Show me how to love as you have loved me.

Break my heart for what breaks yours,

Everything I have for your Kingdom's cause

As I walk from earth into eternity.

Amen