Life is full of lessons. Learning the lessons quickly can lead to a better, more satisfying life. While there are things in life that are out of our control, there are many things in life that we definitely have control over, such as our decisions, our actions, and how we handle situations.
One of the biggest lessons I wish that someone had told me early in my life, is that everything that I do that is good or bad in life will have a cumulative effect in the long run! If I continue doing things in a less than optimum way, then the bad effects grow. If I continue doing things in an optimum way, then things will progressively get better. Maybe someone told me these lessons, but I didn't hear or listen to them, and I ended up having to learn them the hard way.
Anyone who has diligently watched their weight can attest to the fact that eating poorly may not show up as weight gain until weeks, months, or even years later.
I would like to think I would have listened if someone had told me when I was young and skinny, and would eat a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts in one sitting, without gaining an ounce, that eventually I would fight weight issues.
I wish I were wiser when as a young man I chose to smoke cigarettes off and on for 11 years, thinking it wasn't doing much to me. I could have saved a lot of suffering years later when I almost died twice from severe pneumonia and repeated bouts of bronchitis, even though I had not been smoking for years by the time it caught up with me.
I wish someone had told me that the health care choices I made as a young man, surgery, pharmaceuticals, and hospitalizations, would limit my health for the rest of my life. I might have made different decisions, and left surgeries and aggressive pharmaceuticals as a last resort, since now I have health issues that not even the most creative natural medicine can undo.
I wish I had known that every vile and hateful thing I thought and said to others would create cumulative ramifications in my relationships.
I wish someone had told me that the more I live in high personal integrity in body, mind, and spirit, the more joy-filled, healthy, and fulfilled my life would be.
I wish someone told me that more I loved other people, the more other people would express love to me.
I wish that I had listened more intently when that small voice in my head told me the right thing to do, and I chose to ignore it, leading to bigger problems down the road of life.
After suffering the consequences of my poor decisions, I have since decided to learn the lessons of life while they are still small, so they don't turn into massive and painful lessons that cost me dearly.
I have learned that the better I do things in life, diet, health care, my walk with God, and my interactions with others, the better those things get. When we live with high personal integrity, and appreciation, loving God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and our neighbor as our self, that we can expect that everything in life will cumulatively get better.
The point is to learn how to not get into trouble in the first place, not to do everything wrong and then pray your way out of the consequences.
Life is cumulative, whether you are consistently making poor decisions or you are making wise decisions. Choose your path wisely. As a good friend once told me, "It is never, the better it gets, the worse it gets. It is always the better it gets the better it gets!" You may not notice the difference in the short run, but in the long run your rewards will be greater.
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