lOVE tHIS!

My sweet friend, Mallory, sent me this and it was too good to not share...

89 things i have learned.
Or am still trying to fully understand.

1. Your own life is not about you.
2. Neither is it lived only for you.
3. All your successes are for God’s glory.
4. All your struggles are for God’s glory.
5. Your failures are for His glory.
6. Your talents are for His glory
7. And your weaknesses are too.
8. So is your past
9. And the very breath you’re given is just another chance to illustrate His glory.
10. Therein lies life’s sole purpose.
11. You are to be the mirror that reflects the Son -
12. To friends
13. And family
14. And strangers.
15. Such faith, then, is not a laundry list of the do and do not.
16. The can and can not.
17. The have and have not.
18. Or the socially accepted obligation you routinely fulfill every Sunday morning.
19. It’s a relationship.
20. It’s a relationship with a Father and Friend that has only the very best for you.
21. And wants to give it to you.
22. Each and every single day.
23. And despite the messes of your own making –
24. Always does.
25. However, what seems the best to you at the time may not be for the best after all.
26. And you will continually get in the way of His plans.
27. Because you find you can get by charting your own course for a while
28. And God is easily relegated to co-pilot status when you hijack the plane.
29. The relationship is yours to either cultivate or ignore.
30. But God is still in the control tower.
31. In fact, you can fly to the very ends of the Earth on a gas tank full of misplaced self reliance.
32. But you’re still on radar.
33. Unwavering
34. No matter where you go.
35. Even hidden in the puffed up clouds of your own pride
36. The multi-layers of materialism.
37. or the wisps of worldly distraction.
38. Things will go well for a while.
39. But you eventually run out of gas.
40. And coast on fumes.
41. And exhaust.
42. And crash.
43. And realize that maybe, just maybe, you can’t do it alone after all.
44. And that the sky you’re piloting is bigger than you thought.
45. And you need a steady hand.
46. Because the friendships you thought would last forever – eventually run their course,
47. And although the season for which they came was sweet,
48. And you’ll always remember it fondly,
49. You can’t control the passage of time.
50. But God knows what you need.
51. And will send you those who point you straight back to Him.
52. You even start to realize, then, that your parents are different too.
53. And that they were people before they were Mr. and Mrs. and Mom and Dad.
54. Kids with dreams.
55. And hopes.
56. And fears.
57. That didn’t include you.
58. But high school reunions will still mysteriously intimidate your educated, classy, beautiful mother.
59. And your dad will continue to try to show you the headstones of your ancestors – just because “you should know.”
60. You’ll eventually realize that maybe he’s right.
61. And in your mind’s eye, you’ll always see the family’s big blue truck pull away on college move in day.
62. But you won’t see their tears on the ride back home.
63. Because you only hear about things like that later.
64. And it’s then you finally have only a very dim understanding of what a love like that must feel like.
65. A love of total sacrifice.
66. That is given freely.
67. And unconditionally.
68. That still somehow manages to pale in comparison to the perfect love of the One who thought of you before He put even the stars in the sky.
69. You eventually begin to see that everyone has a testimony.
70. Because your life is a chapter by chapter story.
71. And you write neither the beginning.
72. The middle.
73. Nor the ending.
74. Although it’s easy to miss that fact in the sloppy penmanship of the day to day.
75. Because it’s easy to be distracted by other things.
76. Little projects you construct for your own little kingdom.
77. But if you can ever finally put yourself aside, and listen – you’ll learn how seamlessly God can move.
78. In your life.
79. In the lives of others.
80. In lives intertwined.
81. He brings you the best.
82. And you’ll find that it’s a relief to know that you aren’t in charge after all.
83. Someone who sees the big picture has everything under control.
84. And will be there to hold your hand
85. Tightly.
86. Even in the uncertainty often found in the road ahead -
87. There is One who is always faithful to lead you home –
88. To His will – because, in the end you finally see,
89. Your life was never really about you anyway.