Friday, April 13, 2018

Researching Life – 10 Questions from a University Girl


One of our young ladies in a Christian university asked for responses to ten questions she was researching for a paper at school. I have posted her questions and my responses below. See how you might answer these, and how you might discuss these questions with your own children. They need you to share your experience and guidance with them.
1. What are some of the most important lessons you have learned in your life?
Pr 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.
Keep sowing good seed, regardless of circumstances or the behavior of others.
Life is not what happens to you. Life is what you do with what happens to you.
Don’t take yourself or others too seriously.
If you can’t do what you love, learn to love what you do.
See every person and situation as you think God would, and respond to each in a way that glorifies Him.
Keep learning, stretching, and growing.
Keep reading books on leadership and working with people.
2. What advice do you have on getting or staying married or remaining single?
Prepare yourself by studying Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Commit yourself to every part of its teaching. Do not marry until you find someone with a similar passion to follow Jesus Christ in every way, all the way.
Set your standard high. Respect yourself. Don’t cheapen yourself or settle for less. It’s better to be single than to be unhappily married.
To stay married, determine every day: “When this day is over my spouse will be glad he or she chose me instead of anyone else in the whole world.”
Be more concerned about filling your spouse’s bucket than you are about your spouse filling your bucket.
Read the Bible together. Pray together. Be present for every service and Bible study with the church. Choose a ministry project together. Go on missions together. Teach World Bible School students or a children’s class together.
3. What advice do you have about raising children or contributing to others raising children?
Make your marriage, not your children, your primary focus.
Be the person that you want your child to become.
Balance tender love and tough love.
Keep reading Christian books on raising children.
Plan what you want your children to have learned or accomplished at each stage of life.
Give your children an anchor, a rudder, and a sail.
4. What advice can you share about finding fulfilling work and how to succeed in a career?
Col 3:23 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.
5. Difficult or stressful experiences can yield important lessons. Is that true for you? Can you give me examples of what you have learned from experience?
I have dealt with some difficult people and situations. I learned that:
People always have their own reasons for what they do.
People do not always think or act as I do or as I might expect.
I can be difficult, too. At times I was stubborn, impatient, etc.
I must forgive others and ask them to forgive me.
6. Can you see any turning points (key events or experiences) that changed the course of your life?
Marrying my precious wife and moving to New York to share the gospel opened my eyes and raised my horizons. The opportunity to teach English and Bible in One World Trade Center in Manhattan was incredibly life-changing for me.
I once resigned from working with a church because of a divided leadership and some changes in that church that violated my convictions. It was hard at the time, and my family and I suffered. However, God has blessed me because of my convictions. My resignation led to a chain of events that brought me to where I am today. I am very thankful for the providence of God!
7. What would you say you know now about living a happy and successful life that you did not know when you were in your early 20’s?
It’s not about you. The less you focus on yourself, the better.
Make and treasure all the friends you can. You will appreciate and need each other more and more as life goes on.
Admit your faults, and ask others to help and pray for you.
Don’t stress yourself out too much about money. God will provide.
8. What would you say are the major values or principles that you live by?
Mk 12:28 One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; 30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 
9. Have you learned any lessons regarding your health that you would have liked to know about when you were younger?
Protect your hearing from loud music and machinery.
Protect your skin from too much sun.
Exercise regularly. Control your diet and your weight.
10. What advice would you give to people about growing older?
Today you are closer to seeing God’s face than you have ever been before.
Make the most of every day. Dwell on what you can do, not what you can’t.
2 Co 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. 17 For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

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