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A Life That Teaches
By Melissa Holland
January 3, 2005
Mass confusion was everywhere. My fourth grade peers were racing toward their cubbies, taking out raincoats, umbrellas, hats, and anything else their mother had packed for them that day. It was almost 3 o’clock and time to race to the buses. There was excitement and anticipation for getting out of school. Not for me, though. My feet were frozen. I couldn’t move. I was gaping in horror at the puddle between my legs. I opened my umbrella, hoping to hide the evidence. Lindsay, my best friend, rushed over. Perfect Lindsay, with her side-swept hair (remember the 80’s?), had come to my rescue. Glancing at my open umbrella and the pool under it, she assumed that the rain from earlier that day had been captured, then released when I opened my umbrella. This was a way of escape that I could never have fathomed. She even helped me clean up the mess. Almost 20 years later that moment is still the most humiliating thing that has ever happened to me. Lesson learned: public restrooms are okay to use.
While not everything that I have learned over the years has been that traumatic, the experiences did teach me valuable lessons. Life lessons. These lessons molded and shaped me into the person that I am today. The Christian that I am today. Without them, my life would have taken quite a different road. I have used the good and the bad things that have happened to me to influence the decisions that I made for the future. From the small things—like mixing waffles, ice cream, and pizza rolls = upset stomach—to big things like when traveling overseas don’t tell customs that you are carrying a million dollars in your suitcase. (By the way, I didn’t do that, but I did hear it from another traveler in France who was bewildered at why he was delayed.) The point is, how can I venture into the future, without first grasping the past?
The Good Book, My Not-So-Good
Life
The Bible
gives us perfect examples of this. They are called the Old and the New
Testament. Ironic, huh? I’ll be the first to admit that I sometimes get a
little—oh, what’s the word?—sleepy…when reading that so-and-so begat so-and-so,
and on and on. I do realize that some people find that fascinating. I have a
friend that has studied that portion of the Bible and even enjoys it. This is
the same friend that you will want to have on your team when playing Trivial
Pursuit. However, if you’ve ever read some of the prophecies in the Old
Testament about the things that would come to pass in the New Testament, they
are amazing! One can certainly see in the New Testament how much the Israelites
had learned from the Old. Apparently not enough to recognize the Messiah when
they saw him, but who is judging?
When I was 16, I watched in horror as my brother punched my mother in her face. We had grown up in quite a conservative house, and my brother was making a choice to choose another path. While this was not a choice that I had to make or have any part in, it was at this point that I decided to live a godly life and stay in church.
I have never wavered in that decision. Maybe God was showing me the road that I could have taken, and maybe I needed to see it. Not only did it straighten me out with my walk, but it also gave me a prayer request. Without having a brother who lives a worldly life, I would never know how it feels to lay myself completely at the altar and cry out with all my heart. I still do. And, because I have seen others come back and turn away from sin, I can say with confidence that God can do it again. This is one of those biggie lessons that I had to learn—faith.
The regrets and failures in my life only taught me to rely more heavily on Christ and to move on. Are there things that I would do over? Yes. Are there things that I have done that I am not proud of? Yes. Can I go back in time and change those things? No. What I can do, though, is realize that Christ is still perfecting me, and maybe even trying to teach me something. If I will listen.
ninetyandnine.com
© 2005, Melissa Holland
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Melissa Holland finds herself working hard at home in Clarkston, Michigan, where she and her husband Ron await the birth of their first born. She no longer wants 80’s side-swept hair.