Thank Goodness Humiliation Doesn't Last Forever ©

Thank goodness humiliation doesn't last forever. If it did, my face would be permanently blushing at all of the foolish mistakes that I have made in my life, or the things that embarrassed me.

My teenage years were a minefield of tortuous events with occasional pockets of sanity. 

My friend Ana and I were discussing our teenage years the other day and how we wouldn't like to have to relive them again. But if God came to me and said, "Vicki, I want you to go back to the age of 15 and relive your life from there," I would reply, "Only on the condition that I could take with me all of the knowledge that I have accumulated to this point in my life." What would be the point otherwise?

Oh how I would do things differently if I had to go back. It would have made life so much more bearable to have the confidence that I have now. No longer would I care about the popular girls or boys and their silly comments, and I would certainly not have been so scared of boys.

My schoolwork would be at a higher level, simply because of what I know, though my shorthand and my maths would definitely need major fine-tuning!

If this had happened, and I had gone back, the odd thing is that once I left school, the choices I made for my future would have been entirely different. I would have gone onto art college as I had wanted, and not been pressured by my parents into doing the teaching course that was never completed. 

As I look back on my life, there are several crossroads at which my life could have turned out so completely differently:

• not undertaking the teaching course but doing the arts course I wanted instead;
• becoming a trainee at a pottery studio instead of going onto to do office-work;
• avoiding my ex instead of moving in with him; and lastly
• staying in my home-town instead of moving to where I am currently living.

I sometimes wonder where I would be now if I had chosen the alternative road. But then I know that my life experiences have taught me and grown me and that God has brought me to the place where I am for His purposes. 

I am where I am supposed to be.

I look forward with anticipation to where God is taking me next. It is both an exciting and scary feeling but thank goodness, God is in control. ©