Success.
Throughout my life teachers and adults in general have always paired success with material gain or the achievement of titles. We are told at a young age to go to college, get a degree, start a career, get married, and start a family. "That is success."
While those things are wonderful goals to have, I think that success should have a personal definition attached to it. The definition should be specially molded for what your life has in store, and it shouldn't fit the cookie cutter shape that society tends to create for all of us.
Success tends to deal with the future. It tends to deal with mile stones that need to be reached by a certain time or we are deemed a failure. But in actuality everyone has their own personal mile stones that are set in place when the time comes. Success doesn't have a deadline.
We also make decisions based on which outcome is most "successful". We like to think that the choices we make can shape the future we want. While it is true that our decisions do effect our future, we have to remember that God is the ultimate map maker of our lives. I recently was faced with a rather big decision. I was putting so much weight on what choice I made and when I made it that I went crazy. I couldn't make a decision because I was scared of every outcome. Throughout this situation I was given a lot of advice, but the one that really stuck was this, "No matter what decisions we make regarding our future, God will always get us exactly where He wants us to be." Something finally clicked for me. In our lives we will always have decisions, it's inevitable. But, those decisions whether big or small, inconsequential or pivotal, should never be so consuming that we forget who is ultimately in control. Yes, there are different paths we can take, some easy and some difficult, but they all lead to the future that God wants for us.
Success: a word that is usually described with one definition but in actuality has billions. Never equate success with money, power, or education because those things are fleeting. While they are blessings that God has given us on this earth, we can't take them with us. True success, in my book, is a strong relationship with the Lord. Putting all our faith and trust in our Father in heaven is the ultimate success because it will last forever.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." -Isaiah 55:9
