The Adulting Lady

Hello Countess

I recently decided to study a bit about the women in the Bible to get a perspective of how women in that age perceived life and lived their lives. The significant ones who made it into the great book of course. And it turned out, they were just like us women today.

I came across a video in which the preacher was speaking about Hannah who wanted to conceive badly but couldn’t. She would cry unto the Lord and live her days filled with sadness, and her life revolved around the one fact that she did not have a child and wanted one. Sometimes we get so consumed with the fact that we lack the one thing we really want and we tend to forget about all the blessings God has given us. At some point I wanted a car so badly that I started to be consumed by the fact that I did not own one. I would think unbecoming thoughts like “I earn more than this and that person monthly but they have a car and I can’t afford one”. It did not occur to me that I was still blessed because although I didn’t own a car, the better salary I received still managed to cover all my responsibilities fully and that I should be grateful for it. I started to forget that I was afforded the opportunity to go to university whilst many couldn’t, and that’s a blessing. I hold a degree. Even though I have a R50 000 student loan debt I am currently paying off as a result, this very degree earns me a better salary. Many families do not have good roofs over their heads but I and my family do because of the job I have which I received partly because of that paper I earned at university that some of my peers do not have.

As Christians sometimes we forget all the scriptures in the Bible that we learn everyday about. When trouble hits we forget that God promised that it is all happening for our good because we love God (Romans 8:28). This very scripture should be letting us know that it may be tough but God knows why we are going through this stage. Many love to throw around the phrase that “everything happens for a reason” and hardly take into consideration how true these words actually are. Sometimes we need to reboot, reconsider and redirect our routes. Can you imagine if everything just went perfectly the way we wanted it to go, every time? We would never find anything valuable. Achieving something wouldn’t be so special if everyone achieved it without any real work. We probably wouldn’t get anywhere at all. Struggle is sometimes necessary.

One other problem with always looking onto the next thing is that one never takes a moment to appreciate ones recent accomplishments. We also realise that we do not actually have either the time or resources to dwell on those achievements because we go on to working towards the next thing and the next. For example, our lives are so busy we cannot focus on enjoying time in our beautiful houses that we worked so hard to build, nor the opportunity to leisurely drive the cars we so badly wanted because traffic is always so bad or the high paying job we sought after is not so worth it because the workload leaves us sick… You get the point.

The thing is, in life there will always be the next thing to achieve. But what about now? We forget to just live for now. Making this very moment a pleasant one. If we don’t start becoming mindful of the present moment, we will be on our death beds wishing we had just lived life joyfully. No one likes to wait, be still and enjoy taking everything in but guess what? Waiting and challenges are a part of life. So why not do it joyfully and with gratefulness? You will be happier that way.

All love

Mmakwena ❤️