Editor's note: The following column is being rerun at reader request.
I wrote at the beginning of last year about 30 things I have learned. I have had several requests from readers to run this article again.
A few years back a friend sent me an e-mail with an entire litany of statements titled "18 things I have learned." She said she received the email from someone else who also received it from someone else.
Usually by the time the e-mails make it around the globe, the author's name is unknown. Such was the email that I received form her. These statements were both thought provoking and inspiring and I thought it worth the newspaper space to print the list again.
I have included the list from my friend's e-mail and then contributed a few of my own. So I will title these few bits of wisdom "30 things I have learned."
Some of these statements I have learned well. Some I am still working on.
- Always treat people like Jesus is standing right there bedside you — because He is.
- You can do something in a minute that will bring you grief for an entire lifetime.
- A soft answer really does turn away wrath, just like the writer in Proverbs said.
- You should always part from loved ones with affectionate words because it just may well be the last time you see them.
- When I can't help someone in any other way, I can pray for them; that was the thing I should have been done in the first place.
- We know that God always listens when we pray.
- We are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel at the time.
- If everything done in life was done just because it was fun, we would never get anything done.
- You can tell the true character of a person by the way he or she treats little children.
- Money is not a measure of success.
- I do not have all the answers but God does.
- We control our attitude or our attitude controls us.
- It is a good thing that God doesn't answer all our prayers.
- Being angry doesn't give a person the right to be cruel or hateful to others.
- Hurting people's feelings under the guise of honesty is callous and mean spirited.
- When tempted to sin, don't think about what you are running from but who you are running to.
- If I put God first in my life, He will take care of the details in my life.
- God is working everywhere; we just have to have the eyes to see Him.
- Don't be so open-minded that your brains fall out and you stand for nothing.
- God does not call the equipped; He equips those He calls.
- You cannot outsource the teaching of your faith to your children.
- Happiness comes from within; happiness does not lie in one's possessions.
- Sin always takes you further than you meant to go, keeps you longer than you meant to stay and costs you more than you meant to pay.
- People are just that — people; sometimes they will disappoint you.
- Perceptions are really realities to people who hold those perceptions.
- The Bible is both timely and timeless.
- Don't let participation in church be more important to you than your personal relationship with Christ.
- Never compromise your principles to gain money, power or prestige.
- Our daily lives should model the message of Christ.
- Our lives are living letters for the world to read. What does your life's letter say?
Judy Brandon is a Clovis resident. Contact her at:
[email protected]
