Thank God for laptops. After typing for over two hours the other morning, seriously, I think my keyboard was smoking. Sometimes I have to type fast before the thought leaves me…that happens sometimes at 52….hehe.
I couldn’t help but laugh to myself and smile as I finished….remembering long ago….long ago…I am talking 38 years ago…when I was in the 9th grade taking an elective typing class! I look back now and remember having my hands covered so that I couldn’t see the keyboard. Does anyone else remember those days? The clock started and I had to type a specific paragraph and then be graded on it for the amount of mistakes! I would sweat. LOL! My fingers would tremble. Thank God, today, my laptop possesses an auto-correct feature or I would be in serious trouble!! God has also been gracious enough to provide the best editor in the world for Back 9!
But I also smile really big when I reflect on my mindset as a 9th grader. My mother, whom we affectionately called The Rock, insisted that I take Typing 1 and Typing 2 as my electives in high school. I remember thinking, “I am not going to be a secretary so why bother with such courses.” I was so frustrated with her demands but reluctantly succumbed in my heart. Thirty-eight years later…I smile over God using my mother’s profound wisdom which, today, enables me in my Back 9 passions!
God knew and He used my mom and my love to please her and obey her, even when I didn’t understand, to bring tremendous fruit in my life. This reminds me of the verses found in Proverbs 6:20-23, “My son, keep your father’s command and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. Bind them always on your heart; fasten them around your neck. When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you. For this command is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and correction and instruction are the way to life,” These verses are found in a portion of Proverbs that deals with adultery but I think it has other applications as well.
I can now look back and see the value in all of the things my father and mother lived out loud before me and took the time to teach me. Sometimes they insisted I do something even when I didn’t want to or didn’t understand–even down to my mother’s encouragement and help in entering the Miss South Carolina Pageant. I know many times they knew what they were doing….even when I didn’t have a clue. I couldn’t. They trumped me in years of lived experience. And even more, they loved God and allowed Him to lead their lives thus, teaching and training me even when they didn’t know my future but they knew God did!
I encourage you today…first, if you are young…even a young adult and have Godly parents….LISTEN…TO THEM. SEEK THEIR ADVICE AND ACT ON IT. This is what Proverbs tells us to do. If you do not have Godly parents, God will be your father and your mother. Ask Him to lead you to people who can offer wisdom and advice.
Second, no matter your age, there is NO substitute for seeking the advice of Godly wise counsel to better your life and your path! God will freely provide. Matthew 7 tells us to seek and knock. To ask.
Matthew 7:7-11, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”
What love the Father has for us! Know today that sometimes we are asked to do things that may not make sense, BUT God knows what He is doing. Trust His leading. Seek His counsel. You never know…that typing class just may lead you to making many shots that count in life!