Posted on 12/07/2013 4:07:46 PM PST by SoFloFreeper
We all have regrets. We look back at forks in the road behind us and wonder where we might be now had we chosen more wisely back then. Every misstep, however, is an opportunity to learn, to follow more faithfully in Jesus’ footsteps. How gracious that our Lord not only covers our folly, but is able to grow wisdom out of it? Below are ten things the now me would seek to impress into the stubborn mind of the then me.
10. Cultivate gratitude, put to death grumbling. I am persuaded the path to future blessing follows on the trail of giving thanks for past blessings. We, like our fathers before us, are given to forgetting, to taking grace for granted, to believing we are due more than we have been given. Like our fathers before us we are wrong. Gratitude is its own reward, as no one has ever been truly grateful and truly unhappy.
9. Worry about your sanctification rather than your standing. This, I suspect, is central to what it means to seek first the kingdom and His righteousness. Just as Jesus warned, we tend to worry about what we will eat or wear. In a context as richly blessed as ours we don’t lose the worry, but inflate it. That is, we don’t worry about having enough to eat. We worry instead about how well we are doing, how much we are respected or envied.
8. Master your temper. Not many of my emotions can get the best of me. Anger, however, often seems to have my number.
7. Encourage yourself and your circle of influence to find your and their satisfaction in Jesus. I am now a professional persuader. This is what I wish I had been laboring to persuade people of from my youth.
6. Learn to like vegetables and be leery of carbs. Bad eating habits, like any other habit, are tough to get past, especially in middle age.
5. Relax, wind down, recreate by doing rather than watching. Reading is better than television. Talking is better than reading. Learning to play music is better than listening to music. Making is better than buying. Those who can rest while still exercising dominion are not only more productive, but more rested.
4. Seek out and read those rare books that both tell you something important and do so beautifully. Read less theological controversies, more Lewis, Chesterton; less spy novels, more Jon Krakaur, Paul Johnson, Iain Murray. Read people whose insights flow less out of what they have studied, more out of what they have lived.
3. Never stop playing baseball.
2. Listen to and honor your parents. This, according to the Word of God, is how you have a good life. Plus, they were telling you all this stuff I’m now trying to tell you. They were right, and you, 18 year old RC, were wrong.
1. Hold Denise’s hand every chance you get. Tell her you love her every time she enters the room. Let the tears well up every time you think of her, and never stop thinking of her. Make sure that her last thought on this earth will be, my Lord loves me forever, and my lord loves me forever.
If You Could Go Back in Time, What Would You Tell 18 Year Old You? was originally published at RCSproulJr.com
This is one that, in my opinion, misses, at least when this advice is shared for general consumption rather than just for his 18 y/o self. We all have different temptations and weaknesses. For some, it is anger. For others lust, gluttony, avarice, pride, envy, or a combination of several. The key is to regularly identify your own weaknesses and work on them.
The Powerball numbers for every 5th year. That way even if I blow it all there will be another in 5 years.
Read more
and
drink less.
At least, read more.
What looks hot may have jungle rot.
LOL!
1. Microsoft. Invest heavily.
2. Apple. Invest heavily.
3. Google. Yes, it sounds weird, but invest heavily.
4. Buy lots of gold in 2001.
5. Amazon. Invest heavily.
6. Buy and hold all the guns and ammunition you can.
7. Buy farms just outside Atlanta's Perimeter in the 1970's.
8. Find a guy named Barack Obama or Barry Soetero, and make sure to get into a situation in which he gets arrested and convicted of a major crime.
9. Go to Russia and see if you can look up and befriend a low-level KGB guy named Vladimir Putin.
10. There's a guy named George Soros. Make sure to invest in his company when he is just starting out. Cash out after a profit, and then find a way to destroy him.
“Hold Denice’s hand...”
First I’d have to meet Denice.
was Google around when you were 18?
Major in petroleum engineering.
He would have renamed it Googlamataz.
I think I would have wanted lotto numbers because I didn’t have the cash to buy a stock. Win the lotto and then buy up Microsoft, Apple, Samsung and other company stocks.
Start a bulletin board named FreeRepublic in 1996. Be Jim Thompson, member number 1. Call everybody else “newb.”
What would I tell my 18 year old self?
“Two years from now you’re going to run into your old high school sweetheart on the street. Smile, wave, then run the other way.”
Don’t take crap from anyone - ever.
I wish I would have matched social security in a brokerage account. I would be in a lot better shape right now.
lolz
11. You are going to live into your 60s, take better care of yourself and save more money.
Don't knock over that saving and loan...
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Just kidding...
Your first girlfriend will eventually become a lesbian. STAY AWAY!
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