ADVICE
‘Don’t eat yellow snow’. That’s all very well, but how many
people do you know who actually eat snow to start with? ‘Don’t
go out with wet hair’ which is all very well if you get up
early, but for those of us who get up at the last possible
moment, it means I would never leave the house! Before my
parents got married but Nan told my dad that if my mum ever got
moody (not that she ever does!!) that he should ‘feed the brut’
– a good piece of advice which I think works for most people.
Maybe the way to loose weight is for me to stop being moody
then?!
Advice – it is really easy to give, not so easy to take. We can
all quote numerous pieces of advice people have given us over
the years, some of which we will have taken, others which we
should have taken! A few years ago when I was in Belarus I saw
this amazingly beautiful wooden fish. I fell in love with it
immediately and bought it there and then. As I showed the rest
of the group my fantastic buy, pretty much everyone told me I
shouldn’t have bought it as it was quite fragile and would never
survive the trip home. I was devastated, but determined to prove
everyone wrong. If you come to my house you will see, in pride
of place on my mantelpiece, a beautiful wooden fish in perfect
condition. If I had taken everyone else’s advice I’d be without
one of my favourite things – you see it’s easy to give advice
when you have no vested interest, if it the outcome doesn’t
really affect you. It doesn’t matter if the advice is wrong or
right, we sometimes just like to be heard to have an opinion and
to know best. It’s a lot harder to give good advice when the
right thing is not necessarily the thing you want to happen.
I have had to make some major decisions recently and I have been
given no end of advice….
‘Pray until something happens – God will make it clear what
you’ve got to do.’
‘If in doubt, do nowt.’
‘Push all the doors to see which ones open.’
‘Go for it.’
‘Don’t go for it.’
‘Do what you think is right.’
‘Do what is right for those around you.’
And my personal favourite – ’I can’t tell you what to do, but
you should……’
Don’t you just love it when people say they can’t give you
advice and then proceed to tell you exactly what to do? Don’t
you just love it when everyone else knows what you should do
(all differing of course) except you? Don’t you just love it
when everyone else’s advice is to benefit them and not you?
Don’t you just love it when you have no idea what to do at all?
No, not really!
What do you do
when the advice you really seek is from God and yet He is the
only one who seems to be keeping quiet? If He would just send
His answers on a postcard it would be really helpful! But God
doesn’t really work like that. What am I saying, He doesn’t ever
work like that!
Dear Natalie,
Having a great time here in heaven – weather is brilliant! Wish
you were here (I hope not just yet!). Oh and by the way, this is
what I want you to do……
Love God x
So as I
struggle with these decisions, ever hopeful for the heavenly
postcard, I pray, and I pray, and then I pray some more.
Sometimes I pray for a knowledge of what to do, sometimes for a
sense of peace so I can concentrate on other things (because
when I have a big choice to make it tends to occupy most of my
thinking, distracting my from the other, less immediate things
in life), but mostly I pray that whatever happens, that whatever
I choose, that whichever door opens, God will be there with me.
There is a great song by the Pretenders called I’ll stand by you
(recently destroyed by Girls Aloud – grr!) which I think relates
brilliantly to a conversation between God and me (or you!).
Listen to it, it’s amazing! Anyway, one of the lines says, ‘When
you’re standing at the crossroads, don’t know which path to
choose, let me come along, cause even if you’re wrong, I’ll
stand by you.’ How great is that, even if we make a total mess
of every decision we make God will still stand by us. He’ll not
abandon us because we don’t take the right advice, He’ll not say
that He ‘told us so’ or that He ‘was right all along’ but He’ll
walk beside us, He’ll support us and love us and He’ll always
stand by us no matter what. Wow!
Therefore my one piece of advice to you would be this – as you
go through life and all that comes with it, look out for the
loving God who is ALWAYS standing by you. He may not always be
seen or heard, but He is there, and I’m sure He’d appreciate you
turning and chatting to Him – He’ll be beside you for a while,
so you might as well get to know your eternal companion!
Oh and one more bit of advice for you……don’t drink and drive –
you might spill it!
