On this my birthday, I would like to reflect on a few things I have learned in these 79 years.

  1. Relationships are to be valued as more important than possessions.
  2. Learn to genuinely love all people.  
  3. We are far more indebted to those who have gone before us than we can ever imagine.  Be thankful for all of them.
  4. Our decisions, actions and manner of life will affect people negatively or positively long after we are gone.  The butterfly effect is real.
  5. My failures, sins, foibles, are greater in my own eyes than the “great sins” of others.  So, the older I get the more things I find, for which I need to repent.
  6. It is more important to truly listen and hear a person than to say something great to them.
  7. We don’t know near as much as we think we know, learn humility about your own opinions.
  8. Learn to laugh at yourself.
  9. Don’t let your emotions blind you to the facts.
  10. Let good memories outweigh the bad.
  11. We can’t change the past and the future is yet to be.  Live your life now, in this moment, and learn to be truly present in the present.
  12. We cannot control what other people do, say or think, so, let it go.
  13. Forgive as you have been forgiven.  Show the same mercy the Father has shown you.
  14. Be generous.
  15. Be gentle, kind, courteous and respectful to everyone.
  16. Keep Jesus’ story central to your own story; it will give your story significance and your story will become a part of His-story, that is, what He is doing in the world.
  17. Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, as long as you can. (John Wesley).
  18. Life goes by too fast.  The older you get the faster it goes. 
  19. In growing old you learn that it takes the same kind of perseverance and commitment to finish the race that it did to start it. 
  20. Know this!  Confess this!  “By the grace of God I am what I am.”  I Corinthians 15:10a
  21. I expect that the same love, grace and mercy that has drawn me to the Father will be the very love, grace and mercy I will meet at the end of the way.

H. Lamar Smith, August 12, 2021