Even though I am wiser and perhaps a bit more cautious
than I was 23 years ago, somehow I have not lost my hopes
and dreams. At 48 years of age, I am attempting to do
something that is far greater than anything I have ever done
before.
Know this: when God fills your heart with hopes and
dreams, Satan will do everything in his power to crush them.
He will use people like Joseph’s brothers to work against you.
But like Joseph, you must never surrender what God places
in your heart. Not many still have their hopes and dreams
intact at 50 years old. Stay close to Jesus and follow his plan
so you can still hope and dream when you get to my age.
Life is not a fairytale but it can be filled with peace
and joy.
If you enter your adult life believing that you will be happy
as long as everything goes well, you are getting ready to be
miserable! Without a doubt, everything will not go well. In
fact, much will go wrong.
You will not marry a prince or a princess, nor will your
spouse meet all of your expectations. You will have to wash
the dirty socks that men often forget to throw in the laundry
basket. She will not wake up every day looking like the
moment she walked down the aisle. You will not get a job
that is easy or get a pay raise once a month.
Life is life, and it is often a great challenge. However, for
the person who does not have false expectations and lives
with Christ at the center and eternity in view, life can be
filled with wonderful moments of peace and joy.
You will fail, but you must not let failure define you!
All of you have studied the life of Abraham Lincoln. You
know about his many failed efforts at getting elected to
public office. If he had been like most people, he would have
stopped trying, and our nation may have been destroyed as
we know it. We are only failures when we give up and stop
trying.
We learn far more from failure than we do success. I
once heard about a man who made a mistake that cost his
company $50,000. Someone said to his boss, “Aren’t you
going to fire him?” The boss said, “Are you kidding me? I
just spent $50,000 teaching him a lesson he will never forget.”
If we are going to use failure as a great teacher, we must
learn to take full responsibility for our failures and mistakes.
We must always get up and try again. My dad use to tell me,
“Son, always be up or getting up!” You will fail, but you must
not allow yourself to become a failure.
Your greatest growth in life will take place in your
most difficult days.
I have rarely learned anything when life was easy, but I
have learned a lot when life was hard. I’m just like anyone
else when it comes to fussing and whining about difficult
circumstances in life. I fully admit that I cry out to God for
deliverance in the midst of every tough time, and I rarely
understand what I am learning until the challenging time
is over. However, I have learned that if I stay true to God—
even when I can’t understand why He is allowing something
difficult to take place in my life—I come out of those times
wiser, stronger, and more prepared to be successful in life.
Do not try to take shortcuts around life’s difficulties. Do
the right thing, and you will develop into a strong, trustwor-
thy, and successful person. Those who choose to take short-
cuts, whether in their marriage, ministry, jobs, etc. never
reach their full potential. You cannot become a significant
person without walking faithfully through the fire of life’s
difficult circumstances!
Bad people and good people will let you down.
I wish I could tell you that everyone you admire will meet
all your expectations. Unfortunately, I can’t. If I had not had
my eyes fixed on Jesus, my faith would have been greatly
damaged years ago.
At some point in adulthood, you will lose your innocence.
You will discover things about people that will hurt you and
shock you. Some you thought were saints; you will discover
are far from it. Some saints you admire will stumble.
I’ve had many un-churched people tell me the reason
they don’t go to church is because of all the hypocrites at
church. They seem surprised when I agree with them. I’ve
seen enough hypocrites to make me an atheist, but I’ve also
seen enough genuine Christians to make me want to know
their Jesus.
Jesus is the only person who will never let you down. Set
your heart and eyes on Him. Keep a close relationship with
Jesus so that you can know Him intimately. Only then will
you be able to withstand the disappointment people bring
into your life.
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