As children, we always thought of growing up fast to either emulate the life of an adult we admire and look up to or to earn certain things in life and be free of control of our parents’ eagle eyes.
We were advised those days to go
through school, enter a tertiary institution, and come out with flying colours
so we can land good jobs that will help us acquire all our needs.
As we make the journey towards
adulthood, we have many hopes and plans lined up that we wish we could achieve
as adults.
Some plan to pursue a certain
career, buy a particular car, own a certain kind of house and head a certain
kind of family.
We almost always feel that the
road to adulthood is smooth and forget the fact that as we journey towards our
imagined world, the ambitions of other like-minded people may cross our paths
and change our direction.
The reality to growing up is that
the path is not as smooth as we may plan it. A lot of obstacles are on the way
to getting to the destination that we chart for ourselves.
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SOURCE: systematicrelativestrength.com
Sometimes the social, economic
and psychological systems we find ourselves in will not allow us to pursue the
goals we want to achieve. We may meet people on our way whose actions and in-actions may either push us towards or away from our goals.
You could plan to earn your first
salary at the age of 25, per your computation of when you will finish your
tertiary education but the reality is that you may not be able to achieve that
because there is no employment after school due to the economic conditions of
the country or society you find yourself. This could also affect your target of
building a house as soon as possible in life, because there will be no funds to
do so.
Your target of marrying at least at
the age of 30 may also not be realized because you may not have the money to do
so or someone whom you plan to marry may disappoint you in one way or another.
No matter the challenges, however,
I wish to assure you that there is hope and one can achieve whatever he or she
plans to achieve.
The reality is that obstacles will come our way no matter how careful we plan things.
Our role is to persevere, pray to
God, work hard and believe that we can make it. People have been able to
succeed despite all the challenges and so with God, we can also succeed for the
Bible says, God is always with us (Deuteronomy 31:6) and he will see us
through.
As we pray to God to help us
through our situations, let us be mindful that prayer is powerful but God works
with his own time and not ours, so we need to be patient. We must believe that
God is never blind to our tears, deaf to our prayers and never silent to our
pains and that he sees, he hears and he will deliver at the right time.
Some of our colleagues may seem
to be getting it smooth, but let us desist from comparing ourselves to them
because we don’t know how they got to where they are and the price they are
paying for their success. Everyone’s situation is different and sometimes there
are people out there who look up to us from afar and wish they could be like us
or have the opportunities we have.
Again, the Bible tells us to
learn to appreciate difficult days and be stimulated by the challenges we
encounter along the way and be confident that as we journey through the rough
terrains of life, with God, we can handle anything (Isaiah 41:10, Psalm 102:27,
Acts 17:28).
We must “keep keeping on” no
matter the obstacles because the struggles we find ourselves in today will
eventually develop the strength that we need to face tomorrow.
Finally, let’s be motivated by a
quote by Cicero, one of Rome’s greatest orators and one of the greatest
Philosophers who ever lived that “dum vita est, spes est” to wit where there is
life, there is hope. Once we are still alive, let’s hope that we
can achieve all our goals and work hard towards achieving them.
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Aut inveniam viam aut faciam - (I
will either find a way or make one)
