Only Through Your Own Experience

Everyone tries to prepare you:

• he's only picking on you because he likes you
• even the most popular girl feels lonely at times
• don't give your heart away to just anybody
• don't waste your time looking for contentment outside of Christ, you'll never find it
• choose your friends wisely
• you'll never be able to "afford" having kids. Don't wait to be financially ready, it will never happen
• you'll look back and miss those smudges on the windows and legos on the floor
• and you ONLY have one, just wait until you have to juggle two (or three or four or FIVE, etc.)
• oh just WAIT until they are teenagers...
• cherish those moments, they will be grown before you know it
• God knows what He is doing. Your circumstances come as NO surprise to Him

But sometimes there are times in life where you just simply can't be prepared enough...you have to actually walk through it yourself.

I want so desperately for my kids to "get" God more than I did as a child.  More than I do now!  I want them to by-pass the teenage drama and make those wise choices the FIRST time.  I want them to grow up feeling completely content in who they are in Christ and in each season God has placed them in...

...or do I?

Sometimes I get frustrated with people who come to me, exasperated with the season they are in and I want to shake them and tell them "I told you so".  Then I remember back at the people who tried to warn me and probably wanted to shake me and tell me "I told you so".

I wouldn't be who I am today without those experiences.

Can we truly understand and grasp God's grace without these life experiences?

Can we really "treasure these moments" until we are in them ourselves?

Maybe we are meant to go through them to see first-hand who God is through them, grow in who He has made us and be better equipped to encourage others who are most definitely going to go through similar circumstances.

Sometimes it's hard for me to drop the "been there, done that" mentality when someone comes to me in a season I have already passed through, but isn't that one of the reasons we go through the things we go through?  To be a listening ear and to encourage? I need to stop standing on the sidelines and being the downer that just says, "Oh just wait!" or "I told you so"...

And that might mean just biting my tongue a little harder and holding off the "Well, when I..." stories a little bit.  I need to just let others experience their own seasons for themselves, I don't have to pretend to know exactly what they are going through, even when I really do know how they feel.  You know, just allow them to live in their season and encourage them through it, not make them feel like their situation isn't a big deal.

This whole post came from looking at a picture of Jude and hearing those voices echo in my head of people telling me to "treasure these moments with him".  I am.  I truly am.  But I couldn't treasure the moments until I entered into them, right?

Do you see where I'm going?
No?
Ha!:)

So, now that I've totally written a whole post that probably makes no sense to anyone I'm gonna go enjoy some of those "moments" with my Colony:)