The sixth life lesson is Time. Time is not under our control, and when it brings change, it frightens us. We are afraid of what we can’t control. But when one door closes, another door opens. However, the hallway can be very difficult and scary. We must learn to embrace change.
Our culture doesn’t value age. We fear it, we hate growing old, we don’t think the elderly are valuable. But we need to see that age is good, and it brings many valuable things that youth can’t. Instead of dreading getting older, learn to fully experience each season of life and learn all that you can from it.
As people grow older, we tend to view them the way they were instead of the way they are now. We even do this to ourselves. Learn to see people as they are, not as your remember them. Also realize that your past experiences shape your present reactions. Evaluate your reactions and create new ones if they don’t reflect the current reality.
The past does not equal the future. Don’t let the past control how you live today. Live in the present and you will experience true happiness. Focus on what you are doing right now in the present. Don’t get trapped in the past or caught up living only for the future. Dread, worry, and even anticipation can rob you of living fully in the now. Fully experience everything, and be fully engaged in whatever you are doing at the moment.
Realize that you can never be sure that the past happened exactly the way you remember it. Your memory is shaped by your perceptions and prejudices. You also can’t know the future. No matter how much you plan and prepare, you will never be able to know what will happen next. Therefore, live in the present. You still need to reflect on the past to learn from it and plan for the future and prepare for it, but the bulk of your attention should be on the present moment.
You do not know when you will die. It may be tomorrow or fifty years from now. No matter what your current situation may seem, you cannot predict the time of your death from it. Remember that heaven is timeless. It is outside of this temporal realm. There are things more important than this temporal world, so don’t get too entangled in them.
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