You Don't Have to Miss Out on the Blessing Just Because You Are Young

It really bothers me when, during discussions about spiritual growth through trials, sometimes older people will make comments like “When you get to be our age, you can REALLY look back and see it.” And sometimes when an older person is giving me some sort of advice, sometimes I feel talked down at, as though I will never understand until I am their age. And it’s as if they know so much that I don’t know. And they will try to explain how God is doing this for a reason…and I will be thankful for it later, looking back. And many of the things they are saying, I have already seen and learned. And as I try to explain this to them, they won’t listen to me.

It bothers me because you don’t have to be old, with 60 years experience under your belt to be able to see God working in your life. It’s not about a difference in age. It’s really about a difference in spiritual maturity.

And guess what? I’m only 20 years old, and I can look back and see where God did things for a reason, even though I didn’t like it at the time. It might not be something as big as the death of a spouse, or a child, for instance. But there are things that were hard for me at the time, and now I am thankful they happened the way they did.

I wanted to leave public school and go to Mars Hill Bible School for years. And I didn’t get to. Not until 9^th grade. But looking back, God used those years in public school to mold me. And I have an appreciation for Christian education that I probably wouldn’t have if I had grown up in it.

I wanted a boyfriend all through my pre-teen and teenage years. I longed for it. I depressed myself over it. I let it define who I was that no one liked me and therefore I was ugly and undesirable. I never even had my first kiss until the end of my Sr. year at age 18, and now I am thankful; He is my husband today. And I can see many reasons that I won’t post publicly that God protected me until HE was ready. He saved me in every way for the one I would spend my life with. He helped me develop patience. He showed me that things on earth simply don’t happen on our desired timeline; that our desire is not always His will; that sometimes His answer to prayer is “wait.” He helped me see that He is truly at work. He gave me time to pray for the man I would spend my life with, and He answered that prayer, fully and infinitely beyond anything I could have asked for.

I could “testify” for days. I could fill up this entire page with God’s work in my life. But my point is this: you don’t have to be old to see God’s hand in your life. You don’t have to miss out on that blessing while you are young. You don’t have to get old and wish you had this insight “back then.” Because the truth is, if you are prayerful and you try with all your heart to live out God’s will, and to seek His direction, and to ask Him for wisdom through trials, you can see it now. No matter how old you are. So don’t miss it. And don’t feel like you are exempt from looking for his fingerprints just because you’re not 60. If you’ll open your eyes and try, and look through “eternal” and “Christ-like” glasses, you’ll see it.