FJWL_02:432
         (Dad:) I had to make a decision when I left you that was very difficult for me. As with most major decisions, the reason they're difficult is because there's a lot of forsaking. That's the part that seems hard, because it always looks like you're giving up so much without gaining anything in its place. But after the decision is made and you see how much more there is, like when I got Here and stepped into the other side, I wondered why I didn't come sooner!
         It's the same with the different steps of life. There's a time when you're born and you've got to come out of your mommy's tummy, and it's a struggle, because you have to give up that nice, warm cozy home. There's a time when you have to start school and it looks like a lot of work and study and discipline and you're losing your playtime. There's a time when you come to teenhood and you don't see anything but problems and restrictions, and it seems you're missing out on things you used to get away with. There's a time when you get married and have children, and you have to leave the independent life behind. There's a time when you have to go to work and forsake your freedom. And there's a time to die and leave behind loved ones for a while.
         There are many things that come into each person's life that you just can't get around! But you can see it's worth it to keep graduating, can't you? Wouldn't it be silly to stay a baby all your life and never grow up? Or to stay a teen all your life? Or to never die and go to Heaven? Or to get stuck in any one phase? Each phase has its own glory and joy and rewards, which, though it's hard to see now, are all part of God's blessings.
         No matter what you think you want to do, you have to go through each of these phases, because that's life! There's no way around it, that's just the way the Lord made it. One way or the other, no matter how we take these phases, we still have to go through them.
         So the easiest thing to do is just yield to it and learn the most you can, do the best you can, and not try to fight it, because if you do, you're just going to be miserable. You'll go through life one way or another. So come on, let's not be miserable. What do you say?



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