Timeline

Nope, this is not about Michael Crichton's famous book which I have yet to read but is definitely on my list of 'Must-read books'.

This entry is about my life's timeline which I'm going to present to my Mentoring and Accountability Group (MAG) members tonight. It lists the good, the bad, the sad, the ugly highlights of my life since the day I was born until now.

As I finished compiling it yesterday, some of the sad events written nearly made me weep all over again. And there were definite trends and patterns which I observed in my timeline. There were trends on problems with women teachers just before I finished primary and also secondary school (I still haven't figured the reason behind this trend!). And also trends on broken relationships and friendships that fizzled. I saw how I kept repeating the same mistakes over and over again until I learned that lesson well and God brought me out of that particular classroom and I moved on. There were also breakthroughs which appear just after very terrible dark dips in my life.

The thing that made me smile and reminded me of the hope that I have in Christ is that this year is the best year ever. By now, I know better than to trust myself and my abilities to abide in God and keep myself from being entangled in confusing relationships. I surrendered my heart for His safekeeping and asked Him to give me wisdom and to protect me from friendships that are not good for me. And He has been doing that so faithfully.

Previously, I never thought of surrendering this area in my life to Him. Friendships are cool and simple things, right? You can't have too many of them! But the people that we associate with do have the power to influence us and wound us whether we like it or not. And not everyone of them are safe. If I had more discernment in choosing my friends all along, my heart would not have received a lot of unnecesary wounding. And my timeline would not have had so many dips in it.

But by His grace, there were more upward spikes in my timeline than there are dips And since this present year has the best ever highlights, I am excited to see what next year holds. I sensed that it would be a time for me to grow deeper roots and to be a more strategic person instead of running through a harum-scarum set of activities like what I'm apt to do. Hee... Doesn't sound terribly exciting, eh? But if that's His purpose for me, then there's no other place I'd rather be.