Saturday, March 20, 2010

Some Teenage Wisdom

As a teenager, I came up with my motto for life: No regrets. Now, that's not so unique, but I went further. I named two corollaries. Or rather, two applications of this rule.

First, the past. Whatever has happened is in the past. It's over. Sure, we've got to live with it. But there's no point crying over spilled milk. You just get a rag and clean it up. Particularly in my life, this meant there was no point being angry about a screwed up childhood. Others made their choices and I have to live with it. But I'm not going to regret it.

But then this also applied to the present and future. I'm eighteen and I've got a life to live before me. Choices to make. Life choices. "I don't want to stand with the setting sun and hate myself for the things that I've done." So I won't. I'll make my choices with care and consideration. If I do this tonight, will I regret it tomorrow? Yes. Then I'm not doing it. Simple as that.*

At least, it all seemed that simple. No regrets. Move forward. Look forward. Watch where you step along the way and keep moving.

Those steps led me to God. Then there was a whole world of other mottos: Love God. Love others. Serve God. Keep the Sabbath. Meditate on the word. Ask everything of God. Be humble. Be gracious. Loving. Kind. Honest.

Frankly, I forgot about the "No regrets" rule. There were too many other things to worry about. But now, as I'm hitting 30 this year, I've been doing a lot of reflecting.

And you know what? I think "no regrets" pretty well sums up where I am in life. And I'd say that's pretty biblical.
*Yeah, I'll make some mistakes along the way, but then it falls under the first corollary.

No comments:

Post a Comment