5 Minutes with Pastor J

Being young could be a whole lot of fun for most teens in today’s times. I remember way back when I was much younger, I wished I didn’t have to go to school, attend classes and very importantly Read! I wished that I could spend a considerable part of the day playing with my friends and talking with that ‘special’ girl that always got me nervous whenever she came into a room I was in. J

At home, I wished that all I had to do was just to watch TV, play computer games, sleep a lot, eat a lot more and not have to do any household chores. If my wishes had come true at that time, I would have felt that was the best life I could have lived at that time. However, with the benefit of hindsight today, I realize that had my wish come true, I would have been a big loser today and would have hated myself for all the time I had wasted. Is it that having fun or enjoying one’s self is wrong? Not all… its just that over time, it has become clearer to me that one major thing that gets wasted and that cannot be replenished is time and what we make of our time determines our future. Think about it; what you are today is as a result of the decisions of yesterday; likewise, what you will be tomorrow will be as a result of what you are doing today. Everything that we do in life can be likened to a seed (that has a harvest eventually) and interestingly everything we do not do is a seed too. If you study hard and understand what you studied, you will perform well at school; likewise, if you do not invest time in studying, you can perform woefully at school. In physics (one course I really didn’t enjoy) we learnt that there is no effect without a cause. We all have dreams of what we want to become in life but what we become will actually be a result of what we are doing today. A successful business owner today is simply a man or woman who did what was required yesterday to become successful today. This leads me to my question to you; are you doing the required things today that will get you to the future that you desire? Are you aware that what you are doing today are the seeds for what you will be tomorrow?

If your answer to any of these questions is no, all hope is not lost… you can still make a change today. I will like to share a few steps you can take towards making this change. We’ll take this one step at a time:

1. What would you want to be in the next 10 years (Vision): You have probably heard the word ‘vision’ being used several times. In this context, we can define it as a mental picture of a desired future. When we were in elementary school, most of us said we would like to be a doctor, lawyer or some other prestigious profession. Today however, becoming a musician, sports celebrity or business owner sounds like a better idea. It’s sad to see so many people pursue careers only on the basis that it seems more glamorous and those in it seem to be making a lot of money. This is why we have so many people trying to wax a record and can’t sing to save their lives. In determining what you’ll become in the future, a lot is tied to your uniqueness in terms of your abilities and strengths. Everyone has something to offer, something that makes them unique. If you spend your time developing yourself in the area of your strengths, you will be more likely to succeed. If you spend a large chunk of the next ten years of your life on activities that bring out your uniqueness, it’s very likely that you will be very successful. It is also very important that I state that for you to fully come to an awareness of your abilities and strengths, the best person to ask is your creator. No one knows all about a product more than the manufacturer; likewise, no one understands you better than God. So I would like you to take out time to ask Him about what His plans have always been for you and also to seat down to identify areas that are your strengths so that you can start developing yourself in these areas. You can also ask your friends around you what they admire most about you or even what your strengths are.

This is an initial step but I believe it will go a long way in helping you discover yourself and making the most of time. We’ll talk about the next step in the next edition of this column. Till then, make the most of your time because your life is made up of years, your years are made up of months, your months are made up of days, your days are made up of hours, your hours are made of seconds and so wasted seconds result to a waste in life.

Ttyl

Popularity: 91% [?]