Capsules of Wisdom

Some things are fundamentally true, and it would benefit you greatly to follow them. Here are a few of them.

1. Never do anything that you will regret for the rest of your life.
   Going against this rule has hurt so many people, and it grieves them to their dying day. The sad part of it is, we already know we're going to regret it when we first start to implement it; yet we do it anyway because of pride and anger. Don't do it. Don't sever contact with members of your family. Don't says words that will hurt a person forever. There are any number of things that we can do or say that we will regret forever. Don't do it.
2. Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom. And with all your getting, get understanding.
   Proverbs 4:7
   
3. Never stop learning.
   Continually add to your brain knowlege about wisdom, history, physics, English (i.e.your language), fine literature, architecture, geography, proverbs, and anything else in your daily life that is important and will help you along the way.
4. Take Responsibility for your actions and your future.
   
5. God is more interested in you improving yourself than in you helping others to improve.
   This is a hard lesson to learn, and hard to understand. Missionaries think how wonderful it would be if they converted whole tribes to the gospel faith in Jesus Christ. Ministers envision a super ministry where thousands of souls are saved and helped through their ministry. The fact is, God has a greater dream for you; he wants you to get better more than he wants you to save a million souls. Remember what that one Man did, Jesus Christ. That's the type of person God wants us to be.
   
   Liken yourself to a jewel. There are precious jewels, semi-precious jewels and constume jewels. A costume jewel is someone without God who tries to be a good person. A semi-precious jewel is a Christian who is growing in Christ. More than a missionary being a semi-precious jewel and preaching the gospel to make other people semi-precious jewels, too, God would prefer for you to be a precious jewel for his Kingdom.
   
   Let's put it this way. God wants you, not your good works. He can get good works out of a stone. But he wants you to be a diamond - a star - in his Kingdom. This is why we seek to do his will for his glory and for his kingdom. If we do something great "for God" to make us feel good and put us in the spotlight, then our so-called good works do not honor God but us. There's only room for one God, as God has made abundantly clear.
   
   I'm saying this to spare you confusion. Do you have a dream of great service for God but it is not coming to past? Do you think you are somehow missing the blessing of God? Your dream may be good, but if it elevates your status and your view of yourself, then you are missing the mark. God wants you to be a precious jewel for his kingdom more than a thousand semi-precious jewels.
   
   It is ultimately God's responsibility to save people through the Holy Spirit, and he can do what he wants through you or through someone else. We are cogs in the wheel. God will use us or not use us as he sees fit. If we want God to use us, then we must focus on becoming more usable. We must let the Holy Spirit grow in us and make us the way God wants us more than we must go on a missionary journey or start a great corporation called a ministry. As The Baptist once said, "He must increase but I must decrease."
6. God doesn't want you to be like Jesus Christ; he wants you to be the best You that you can be.
   God made Jesus to be like Jesus. Wouldn't it be dreary if everybody in the world was exactly like you? Wouldn't it be dreary if every tree was exactly the same: an oak tree or a pine tree? Wouldn't it be dreary if every animal was the same kind of animal or every human had the same personality? God gave everyone a unique personality; it adds spice to the world and variety is better. If everybody were the same, this world would not be viable. We need one person to be a Thomas Edison and another person to be a Shakespeare, and still another to be a taxi driver. We can learn lessons from Jesus, but we are not supposed to be Jesus. We are supposed to be ourselves, but the best ourselves that God made us to be. We want to be the person God envisioned for us rather than the person we envision Jesus would have been.
7. Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.
   Psalm 37:4
   This doesn't mean God will give you whatever your heart desires. It means the desires in your heart are put there by God. He gives you the desires of your heart. Do you love and serve the Lord and feel you should be a minister, but instead your heart yearns for something else, such as to be a business person or a public school teacher? That desire in your heart was put there by God. He has in mind service your can perform for him there. That's why he put the desire there. Who knows? Maybe you will be the tool through which the next great minister of God comes. Or maybe God has even more significant work in mind for you there. Trust God. Trust the desire of your heart. Believe the Bible that those who delight in God have the desires of their hearts shaped by God.
8. Always be optimistic.
   The Pessimist Credo says "I always expect the worst. Then when things turn out bad, I'm not disappointed. When things turn out good, I'm pleasantly surprised." The Pessimist Code is, "I'm not a pessimist. I'm a realist."
   
   Reality is this, if you expect to lose and plan to lose, then you're going to lose. A successful person tries and fails, tries and fails, and tries again until he wins. The Pessimist just gives up. He's a loser; a failure. A Pessimist makes excuses an art form. An Optimist makes opportunities and success an art form.