What I’ve Learned, The First Fifty Years

A post from a fellow-laborer in the fields…  Check out Anne Lang Bundy’s blog: http://building-his-body.blogspot.com/

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 
~ Galatians 2:20 (NKJV) 

Today I complete fifty years of drawing breath. I don’t feel fifty years old unless I look back at all I’ve lived through or look forward to all I wait for, so I simply try to live in the present—to “seize the day” while remembering to plan for the future and see the past as no more than my schooling in life. 

Here is a handful of some random things I’ve learned in my first fifty years. 

The more I learn, the more I realize how ignorant I am of all there is to know, and the less I want to say. 

The less you speak, the more likely people are to listen to what you have to say. 

Strive for excellence and leave perfection to God. 

Kindness is more important than efficiency. 

Unkindness is never justified, however necessary or difficult the truth. 

Force, even painful force, is necessary to authority and most effective with absence of anger or malice. 

Neither debtor nor the one owed a debt is truly free. Forgiveness means living free of debts. 

A good physician facilitates cures, but healing comes only from God. 

(Likewise …) Any one of us can be an agent of rescue, but deliverance comes only from God. 

There’s no better place to be than the center of God’s will. 

Comfort can sometimes be purchased, but peace is a gift of God. 

Joy is the product of expressed gratitude. 

Money is a problem if you have too little or too much. If you have adequate food and clothing, you don’t have too little. 

Jesus died to save sinners, of whom I am chief, and there is no cause to look down on anyone. 

The most important thing I will do today is express my great love for God in my love of neighbor. 

Love doesn’t eliminate sin, but it does cover a multitude of sins, and that’s enough for mortals. 

The Lord’s Prayer covers everything. Pray it often and slowly. 

There’ s nothing in this world truly new— 
That which has been is what will be, 
That which is done is what will be done, 
And there is nothing new under the sun. 
~ Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NKJV) 

God makes all things new (Revelation 21:5), every day— 
This I recall to my mind, 
Therefore I have hope. 
Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, 
Because His compassions fail not. 

They are new every morning; 
Great is Your faithfulness. 
~ Lamentations 3:21-23 (NKJV) 

Finally: 
God is good. ALL. THE. TIME. 

Gracious Father, if I have found favor in Your sight, please grant to me: 
humility without defeat, 
joy without pride, 
peace without complacency, 
faith without presumption, 
hope without expectation, 
passion without impatience, 
and love without constraint, 
for Your glory alone. 

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